Among the Stars
by Insanity-becomes-you
Summary: Life was returning to normal for Vayn before a mysterious attack throws him and his friends into an adventure like no other. Now all he wants is to go home...right? And the giant key isn't making things any better.../ AU Multiple Xover
1. Memories

**Alright, this is my second story! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten my first. I am just taking a break from it for a while.**

**This one is set in KH-1. The story revolves around Vayn (Pronounced **_**V-aw-n**_**) which is my made up character.**

**If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask.**

_Sora and the whole cast of the Kingdom Hearts series glare at me._

**Oh, right… ahem **

**I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS OR ITS CHARACTERS!!**

**Now, onto the story:**

**

* * *

**

Vayn, a bluish-green-eyed 14-year-old with dark-brown hair that grew over the back and sides of his head and spiked slightly at the front, sat upon the Paopu-bearing tree, gazing over the ocean before him. To him, the expansive waters seemed to be endless, continuing past the sun-risen horizon.

Out of the corner of his eye, the teen could see the area of Destiny Islands where its residents lived, the chimneys of their houses expelling smoke, signaling that they had set up fires in order to keep them warm during the cool nights. That is where he and the rest of his friends called home.

_Home…_

Vayn could clearly remember his last night on his home world, although everything before that seemed to be a blur to him.

Vayn closed his eyes as he recalled that night.

_Flashback _

It was cold that night, four years ago. It was the night after his birthday. He snuggled deeper into the sheets of his bed, but still couldn't sleep. For some reason, he felt uneasy; like the shadows in the darkened room would swallow him whole if he shut his eyes.

"_They are coming for you."_

Vayn shot up from his bed when he heard the enigmatic voice echo in his empty room.

"W-Who's there?" Vayn questioned, straining his vision as he searched for the source of the voice.

Only silence answered back.

Vayn was shaking slightly, mentally telling himself that he was hearing things. He laid back down, pulling his sheets closer around him.

"I know I heard someone…" Vayn told himself, whispering. "Who is this 'they'?"

Suddenly, he heard screaming coming from outside, followed by the breaking of windows and other noises.

"What are they!!?"

"RUN!"

"AUGH!"

Vayn, again, shot out of his bed, throwing the covers of his bed off of him.

"The hell…?" he murmured, wondering what was going on outside.

Vayn peered through the blinds of his bed side window. Outside, he could see the people of his small town running past his house, fleeing from strange black—things!

The creatures were completely black, save for their cold, lifeless, yellow eyes, with antennas. Some were small with short antennas, but others were larger, more humanoid, and had longer antennas.

They moved quickly, disappearing into the ground at times and gliding along it like shadows, emerging in front of the townsfolk. When the beasts caught their 'prey' they did something that filled Vayn with both awe and fear.

The dark beings would incapacitate the townsfolk, the humanoid-looking ones either jumping on top of them or knocking them down with powerful, swift swipes of their claws, while the smaller ant-like ones went for their legs, and then they would force their claws down into the helpless person's chest, extracting a radiant heart from him/her.

The heart-stealing monsters then crushed the hearts they removed, which caused the victim to become engulfed in darkness, only to return as one of the black creatures.

As Vayn was observing what was transpiring, three 'ant-shadow' creatures surfaced in his room, silently approaching the unsuspecting child.

"_Behind you," _Said a voice calmly, warning Vayn.

Vayn obeyed the voice, turning just in time to see a shadow lunge at him. Vayn reacted quickly, rolling off of his bed, escaping the attacking creature. The other two advanced upon the 10-year-old, twitching spasmodically. Vayn fled away from the shadows running towards his door, then outside to the street.

Outside, among the chaos, Vayn cast a glance skyward, gaping in amazement for a moment at what he saw.

A giant ball of—who knows what!—hovered above the town, sucking in dust and loose pieces of debris.

Vayn didn't get much time to take in the sight because, out of the earth, the shadows returned, closing in on Vayn again from the front. The young boy backed away in fear, afraid of the things after seeing what they could do.

"_Do not be afraid--"_ began the voice that he heard the last two times in his room.

"_For you hold a powerful weapon."_

The voice, as mysterious as it was, gave Vayn courage—the courage to fight back against the creatures. Vayn believed it and stood his ground against the three shadows, grasping a discarded pipe on the ground. It was probably used by another, before he/she was killed by the creatures.

It had sufficient weight according to Vayn. He held out his left hand towards the monsters, holding his pipe behind him, waving it around slightly. Then he waited for one of them to make their move.

The center one made its move first, jumping forward at Vayn. The pipe-wielding boy swung his 'sword' at the attacking shadow, swinging from right to left, striking it in the head and sending it away. It didn't die however, but it tumbled across the pavement before coming to rest on its back, stunned momentarily.

The one on the right attacked next, jumping forward just like the first one. Vayn gripped the pipe with both hands, swinging right and hitting the shadow in the head, making it tumble along the pavement, too.

The last one melted into the street, circling to Vayn's backside like a real shadow. Vayn could feel it emerge from the ground behind him, so he swung his pipe over his head, turned 180 degrees, and hammered the resurfacing creature with a mighty strike.

The hammer strike left the shadow stunned, giving Vayn enough time to retreat back.

"Whoa…" Vayn muttered, surprised at how well he fought. '_Since when could I fight?' _he asked himself.

Suddenly, he felt his arms get caught in an iron grasp.

"Wha…!" Vayn let out as he turned his head left and right. Two totally different creatures, which looked humanoid, had snuck up on his sides, wrapping their elastic arms around his hands. They were completely white, except for their black heads that were hidden beneath, what seemed like, a white hood like thing that had a strange symbol on top.

"Augh…Let go! Let me go, Dammit!" Vayn yelled, struggling to get himself free. The strange things did not respond, but instead held tighter.

"Struggling is useless."

A figure, shrouded in a black trench-coat, appeared through a dark portal as this was said. Next to him were his mother and father, both bounded and near the point of fainting.

"Mom…Dad…? What the hell are you doing!!" Vayn shouted, still trying to free his arms.

The man in the cloak didn't answer, but instead brought out two swords, seemingly made of pure energy, that glowed blood red. He hoisted the energy swords over the necks of Vayn's parents.

"No…" Vayn whispered, realizing what the man's intent was.

In a quick motion, one that showed no mercy or regret, the man brought down his energy swords upon the parent's necks, beheading them.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Vayn yelled out at the top of his lungs, tears streaming down from his face heavily.

After that, everything fell into black for Vayn.

_End Flashback_

Vayn now reopened his eyes, tilting his head back to look at the clear blue sky, a single tear running down his face from the painful memory.

In the distance, he could see several boats approaching the islet he was on, his friends boarded on them.

Vayn smiled a bit, watching the boats cruise their way through the calm waters.

Vayn closed his eyes again, recalling his first meeting with his friends.

_Flashback_

Darkness… That was all Vayn could see. He could feel himself falling, but that was it. Everything else was numb to him.

'_Is this…is this what death feels like?'_ Vayn questioned himself, unable to look around the empty, dark void.

Vayn continued to fall for what seemed like an eternity in the realm that was devoid of any kind of life.

'_I guess this is the end…'_

**Whoosh**

Vayn suddenly heard the sound of ocean waves hitting the shore, followed by the cool feel of water surrounding him and the smell of salt-water and sand.

'_The…ocean? Am I dreaming?'_ Vayn thought, confused by the sudden change in his senses

Slowly, he opened his eyes, blinking a couple times due to the sudden contrast in light.

Blue skies and a bright sun filled his vision, a welcome sight after his period in the dark abyss. He clenched his hands, feeling the muddy shoreline he was lying on.

Six heads popped into his vision: four of them belonging to boys and the other two girls, all of them around ten years of age, like him.

The first boy had spiky brown hair and deep blue eyes. Next to him, a slightly taller boy with longer, silver hair that grew down to his neck and light blue eyes. On the other side, there was a boy with reddish-orange hair that made a large curl in the front, and another boy with sandy blonde hair that was also spiky, but not nearly as spiky as the first boy's.

The first girl was a brunette, her hair curling down on the sides and in the back. The other had reddish-brown hair that went down to her neck.

"Look! He's awake!" said the boy with the spiky brown hair, quickly looking up at the others before looking back down at the half-unconscious Vayn.

"We can see that, Sora," replied the silver haired boy, coolly.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked the red-headed girl, worryingly, ignoring the second boy's comment.

Vayn slowly sat himself upright, holding his throbbing head. "What…" he began.

The images of his home being attacked and his parents' death flickered into Vayn's mind.

Vayn shot up, standing and looking around in panic. "W-Where am I? What happened to my home?! Who-Who are you people?!" he yelled out.

"Whoa! Take it easy, brudda," said the red-orange haired boy, trying to calm Vayn down, but to no avail.

"GET AWAY!" Vayn shouted, breaking out of the group and running down the beach, deliriously.

In his wild sprint, Vayn's foot lost its grip in the loose sand, and he fell, hitting the soft earth. He got onto his hands and knees, gasping between sobs. The image of his family's beheading replayed over and over in his mind.

Vayn vomited on the sands due to the grotesque image, before blacking out again, tears still dripping off of his face.

When he woke up again, he was lying in a very comfortable bed, staring up to grayish tiles that covered the well-light room he was in. Looking around a little bit, he could tell he was in a hospital room.

"Health-wise, he is perfectly fine, despite some minor bruising around his wrists."

Vayn focused his sights on the source of the voice. He could see a nurse, dressed in all white, in the door way of the room, standing in front of the kids he had seen before on the beach. Apparently, she was telling them about his status.

"However, he seems to be traumatized. He has been mumbling deliriously for a while now," she explained.

Vayn groaned audibly at his soreness and at his splitting headache.

The nurse, followed by the other kids, was around him in seconds. The nurse checked his temperature with her palm before leaving to get the doctor.

The rest of the kids Vayn had met stayed, huddling around the hospital bed.

Vayn wanted to say something like 'Where am I,' or at least 'Hello,' but the words caught in his sore, dry throat.

"Hey…Are you alright?" asked the brunette girl, green eyes showing confusion and worry.

Vayn nodded, not really knowing what to say as an answer.

"What's your name?" asked the spiky brown-haired boy, cocking his head slightly.

"Vayn…" was the hospitalized boy's answer, his voice raspy.

"Vayn, huh? Well, I'm Sora!" replied the boy, whole-heartedly. "These are my friends, Riku, Kairi, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie," continued Sora, motioning his hand to each one of the others.

Vayn gave a forced smile, and waved weakly to the group. Then, he pointed a finger at a glass of water that was set on the tray next to him, but was out of his reach.

Sora was puzzled at Vayn's gesture. The boy named 'Riku' sighed, giving a large eye-roll, and grabbed the glass, handing it to the thirsty Vayn.

Vayn took a couple swigs, leaving the glass almost empty. "Thanks," he said, grateful to have his thirst quenched.

Vayn sat up, resting his back against the wall behind him, grunting a bit. Once settled, he asked the question that was eating him away. "Where am I?"

Riku, obviously the 'cool' one of the group, answered. "You're in the emergency room of the Destiny Island Clinic. When you collapsed on the beach, we brought you here."

"Destiny…Islands?" Vayn repeated, sitting motionless on the bed, trying his best to arrange his conflicted thoughts.

"That's right," said the red headed girl, Kairi. "It's a cluster of small islands. The one we are on right now is where we live."

"What happened?" asked Vayn, not even knowing how he arrived at the islands in the first place.

"You tell us," replied the boy with sandy blonde hair, 'Tidus'. "We just found you lying on the shore when we rowed out to the island near here to play."

Vayn took a moment to think to himself, to discern the real events from his memories from things he imagined—or at least he thought he imagined.

"I…I remember being in my room," Vayn began slowly. "Then I heard screams outside…"

Vayn began to speak louder and louder as the memories flooded back to him. "And then I saw these—these things attack the townspeople and kill them. Then…"

Vayn took a deep breath to calm himself down, not wanting to make a big scene again.

"Then, a man appeared and…killed my family."

The entire troupe of friends gasped at Vayn's final statement.

"That's…That's horrible," said Kairi, deeply sympathetic.

He threw off the bed covers that were around him suddenly and began to trudge out of the hospital room.

"I need some air," Vayn blurted out, using it as an excuse to be alone.

Kairi and Sora started towards the door as Vayn made his exit, but were halted by Riku. "Leave him alone. He needs some time by himself," he said, understanding Vayn's reason for leaving.

_End Flashback_

"Hey, Vayn! What are ya doing here so early?"

Vayn was slightly startled by the sudden interruption.

Turning around from the Paopu-tree, Vayn saw Sora, Riku and Kairi standing behind him. The rest, that being Tidus, Wakka and Selphie, were farther down on the beach.

Vayn turned back around as he answered Sora's question. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking…"

There was moment of silence before Kairi continued the conversation.

"Today is the anniversary, isn't it?"

Vayn gave a slight nod, followed by a light sigh. "Yeah. Today, four years ago, is when my home was attacked and I came here."

"Oh, yeah! That means yesterday was your birthday, right?" Sora realized.

Vayn, again, nodded, not adding anything. "How come you didn't remind us?" Sora asked, feeling bad that he didn't remember his friend's day of birth.

"I didn't want a party," Vayn said, plainly. "Why not?" Kairi chimed in.

Vayn gave a suppressed laugh, and tilted his head back just enough to look at them through his left eye. "Remember last time? Sora's mother organized my party and hired a clown for entertainment."

Sora rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as the other three laughed at the memory.

"Hey Vayn," Riku called, "Tidus and the others want to have a three-on-three match. Since Kairi doesn't want to join, how would you like to fill in?"

Vayn leapt down from the tree, landing gracefully in front of the three.

"Sure!" Vayn exclaimed, his voice clear of any sadness. He began to walk ahead of the three, his hands tucked into the pockets of his black shorts.

Sora followed suite, crossing his arms behind his head in a care-free manner.

Kairi and Riku shot each other a glance before Riku took something out of his blue pant's pocket.

"Hey Vayn! Catch," Riku suddenly said, tossing the metallic object to the teen. Vayn turned quickly, instinctively catching a silver necklace by the chain.

Vayn observed the necklace. It was completely silver and the charm was a symbol of a crescent moon.

"What's this for?" Vayn asked, still admiring how beautifully crafted the gift was.

"It's a birthday present," Kairi explained, while she and Riku crossed the bridge. "Riku and I decided to buy you something, so we put our money together and got that. We knew how much you love to look at the night sky."

"Not everyone forgot your birthday," Riku said, ignoring the hurt look from Sora. "Hey! What's that suppose to mean?" retorted the brunette, insulted.

Vayn chuckled a little from Sora's reaction, and then put the necklace on, holding the moon-charm in his palm. "Thanks guys," Vayn said, looking at Riku and Kairi.

The four continued their walk to the beach, Sora pouting a bit with his arms crossed, Vayn still gazing at his present, and Riku and Kairi pleased with themselves.

They were just walking by the abandoned sea-side shack when Vayn felt a sudden chill in the air, followed by him seeing a quick movement in the shadows below the large tree.

Vayn froze, keeping his eyes trained on the area of shadows where he saw, or at least thought he saw, something move.

"Huh? What is it?" asked Sora.

Vayn shook his head, looking back at Sora. "Um, nothing. I thought I saw something." Vayn answered, writing it off as a figment of his imagination.

_I must be tired…_Vayn told himself, yawning.

* * *

**Well that's my first chapter!**

**Yeah, I know nothing special happened, but I had to build a background for the character. The next chapter is where things pick up!**

_**Please **_**comment! I need to know if this story is actually interesting to others.**


	2. Dreams

**Finally! I've been buried in homework for weeks. **

**If you read the title, you can probably guess what's gonna happen here.**

**Here's hoping that this fic gets popular like my other one!**

**Well enjoy:**

* * *

The three-on-three match was over quickly, ending with Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka slumped on the sands in defeat and Riku, Sora and Vayn standing on the beach in victory. 

Tidus groaned, more disappointed than tired, and shouted, "I want a rematch!" Next to him, Selphie and Wakka sighed, still exhausted.

Sora twirled his wooded sword in his hand, bringing to a rest on his shoulders. "A rematch?" Sora asked, and then turned towards Riku and Vayn. "How 'bout it, guys?" Riku nodded silently, ready for more.

Vayn, however, wasn't listening. His attention was focused on the entrance to the 'secret place', which actually wasn't that much of a secret, which was near where he saw, or at least thought he saw, movement in the shadows. There was something about that place…

"Hel-lo, Vayn! You awake buddy?"

Vayn's attention was snapped away by the energetic brunette's question. "Huh…?" He murmured, in a daze.

"Do you want a rematch?" Sora repeated, a small bit of curiosity in his eyes

Vayn shook his head. "Nah, you guys go on ahead," he said, setting his hand-made wooded sword next to the sea-side shack and walking off, heading for the door that lead to the back side of the islet. As he was approaching the door, he could hear the five arguing on who should be on whose team.

On the back side of the island, Vayn could see his good friend Kairi sitting on the sand, working on something intently.

Kairi was one of Vayn's closest friends; she was pretty much a sister to him. She, too, was from another world that ended up on the islands one night during a meteor shower, years before Vayn. She couldn't remember anything about her home or how she managed to get to the island. In the respect of the latter, Vayn considered her lucky.

"What's that ya got there, Kairi?" Vayn asked once he her. Kairi glanced at Vayn before returning to her piece of work. "It's a Thalassa necklace," she answered, "It's supposed to ensure a safe voyage for sailors. I thought we may need some good luck for our journey."

"Good luck, huh," Vayn replied, switching his gaze from Kairi to the morning horizon, "Well, I don't believe in that sort of thing."

Kairi stopped working on her necklace and looked up at Vayn. "Why not?" she asked.

Vayn shrugged. "I dunno…personal experience, maybe," he answered, his voice trailing off a bit.

* * *

The 'journey' Kairi was referring to was something Riku thought up. He planned to build a raft and set sail for another world, although, Vayn knew what it was really about. Sure, Riku always dreamed of journeying to far off places, but there was another reason why he wanted to leave Destiny Islands. 

Years ago, back when Sora, Riku and them weren't even born yet, there was a war between the islands and another cluster of islands known as Bikanel. Destiny Island's army, which included Sora's and Riku's fathers, was sent to into combat.

Soon after, Riku was born, and his mother died while giving birth to him. Riku, who was too young to understand what happened, was placed in foster care until he was five, which was when the war ended and the army returned home, with many casualties behind them, one of them being Sora's father.

Riku's father was heartbroken to hear the news about his wife, and grieved for her for several years. When Riku was around eight, his father began to drink heavily, and would often come home drunk and crazed. There were several nights where he would yell at Riku, blaming him for his mother's death and so on, and before long, Riku began to believe him, and would often cry alone, but never when he was around the others.

Sora, on the other hand, grew up with his mother, never knowing about his father except for tales about him that he heard from his mother, which sparked Sora's adventurous nature. He hid his sadness and regret for never knowing his father well though, laughing it away, and remaining his cheerful self.

* * *

Kairi stood up, brushing sand off of her usual pink skirt and sticking the self made trinket into her pocket. "Where's Sora and Riku," she said, almost in a haste, changing the subject. 

Vayn shrugged, also wanting to change the subject. "Probably with Tidus and them," he answered, still gazing over the clear ocean water in front of him.

"The usual?" she asked before sighing.

"The usual," Vayn replied, nodding and smiling a little because of Kairi's sigh.

"Let's go get them," she said, walking off towards the front end of the island, "we need to get started on the raft."

"Yeah," Vayn agreed, following her.

For the rest of that day, Sora, Riku, Vayn and Kairi worked on building their raft, occasionally taking a break, or forcing Sora out of one, which entailed dragging—_lots_ and _lots_ of dragging.

It was almost dusk when they finally ceased working, the sun setting behind the waves.

"Well," Sora said, "it's coming together nicely." Truthfully, it was a piece of crap, with boards protruding from the floor and other such things.

Vayn gave a long, heavy yawn, his arms stretching skyward as he did. "Come on, guys," he said, his arms dropping down, "Let's go back. We'll finish it tomorrow."

The others silently agreed, and trudged away behind Vayn.

It was dark by the time the four arrived on the shore of the mainland. "Well, 'night everyone," Vayn said, yawning again. He couldn't figure out why he was so tired all of a sudden.

-----------

Vayn opened the door to his house, producing a subtle creak from the hinges.

The mayor of Destiny Islands had kindly let Vayn live there since the previous owners had moved out years before Vayn's arrival and no one else wanted the property. He also financed Vayn's education and given him the necessities: clothes, food, and clean water. Still, Vayn got a job, working part time on weekdays at a local bookstore, though they barely got any business now, since it was spring vacation.

It was a small house, which is why the other family had moved out, with only one bedroom, one bathroom, a very cramped kitchen, but this suited Vayn just fine.

Vayn stripped off his gray vest and threw it on the bed, then plopped down on it. He felt his eyes slowly shut, blanketing his vision with darkness.

-----------

_Falling…_

_Wha…? __This again?_ Vayn thought, recognizing the empty realm he was in.

_Falling …_

Vayn continued his never ending decent, unworried as he expected to wake up momentarily.

Vayn's eyes shot open, and were greeted by blinding sunlight. After his eyes adjusted to the new light, Vayn discovered that he was standing on the beach. Down in the water, he could see Riku, Sora and Kairi, staring blankly back at Vayn.

_O-kaaay__…_ Vayn said to himself, before he noticed that the tide was receding rapidly. He looked up from the tide and saw a large tidal wave form behind the trio, who outstretched their arms towards Vayn at that moment.

"Guys!" Vayn gasped, running out into the surf, not caring if this was fiction or reality.

The wall of sea water engulfed the four friends. Vayn spiraled backwards for several meters before he regained control. Peering through the water, he could see the Riku, Sora and Kairi standing in the exact same place, unfazed by the wave.

Vayn reached out to them, but was forced back towards the surface by a strong current. Vayn pierced the water surface, gasping for breath. He was about to dive back in for his friends, but something gripped his shoulder tight and spun him around. A man in a black coat, with its hood up, was standing there, facing Vayn.

_Who's this guy? _Vayn wondered. The man removed his hood, slowly, and Vayn gasped at what he saw.

"You're…me?" Vayn sputtered, which was the truth. The figure was Vayn, except for the eyes which were completely black and the hair, spiked up everywhere and also covered in black.

The doppelganger's only reply was a gloved finger that pointed to the sky behind Vayn. Vayn followed the finger, and saw many meteors falling against the twilit horizon, but something else caught Vayn's attention. Falling among the meteors was a silhouette, and, as it fell closer, Vayn could see that it was himself…_again_!

"Wha—AHHH!" yelled Vayn as he felt gravity's effects fade away. Suddenly, _he _was the one falling, screaming towards the open water. Vayn hit the ocean head on, and sunk deeper and deeper.

He continued sinking, which grimly reminded him of the dark realm he was previously in. The strange—well, strang_er_—thing was that, although he was underwater, he didn't feel wet at all, and he could actually _breathe_!

Suddenly, Vayn's feet hit something solid, creating an echo. Vayn's eyes darted all around the empty place, with one thought buzzing around behind them: _Where the hell am I?_

Vayn took a cautious step forward…and was greeted by thousands upon thousands of doves, exploding from the floor and flying up and away from Vayn, the deafening sound of the dove's flapping wings filling Vayn's ears.

"What the hell?!" Vayn shouted, covering his eyes as the doves flew all around him.

When the doves were finally gone, and Vayn's ears finally stopped ringing, Vayn lowered his eyes to the floor where the doves rose from.

The 'ground' was a giant pillar that stood alone in the void, made of beautiful stained glass. In the center was an image of him and Sora standing back to back, looking upward. Above the two of them was Riku, with his back turned, and dressed in a strange black and purple suit with white lace around the waist.

The voice's sudden appearance made Vayn jump in surprise. It sounded like it was coming from all directions.

_**But every journey begins with a single step…,**_ the mysterious voice continued, emotionlessly.

Vayn was calm now, listening intently on what the voice was saying, looking around, trying to find where it was originating from.

Vayn furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Who are you?" Vayn asked boldly, still drifting his eyes around the blackened atmosphere.

**_My name is not important_**, the voice responded, which sounded like more of a statement then an answer.

_**The real question is** **are you willing to face your destiny, unafraid of the future.**_

"Um…yes?" Vayn answered, unsure of what the voice was taking about.

**_Then step forward._**

Vayn did so, walking into the center of the pillar. "Happy now?" Vayn asked, sarcastically.

As if a response, a pedestal rose out of the pillar, violently shaking the ground and Vayn. There was a flash of white, and, atop the pedestal, a sword appeared. It had a pure white blade and a gold handle with a black grip.

**_You have great power inside of you…_**

A second pedestal shook the ground as it entered, and a rod flashed into existence on top of it. The rod was about four feet in length, with a blue orb on top of it and a brown bar attached to it.

**_But you must give it form…_**

A third and final pedestal popped up, undulating the ground like the rest, and a shield that was green along the edges and a black tiled front appeared on its top in a flash of light.

**_Now, which will you choose?_**

A soft ray of light shone done upon the sword as the voice said**_, Will you choose the power of the warrior, invincible courage; a sword of terrible destruction?_**

Another ray of light appeared, shinning down on the rod.

**_Will you have the power of the mystic, inner strength; a wand of wonder and ruin?_**

Again, more light came down, reflecting of the shield.

**_Or do you wish to have the power of the guardian, the kindness to aid friends; a shield to repel all?_**

Vayn's first instinct, like that of many teenaged males, was to grab the sword, but he stopped himself, and instead hopped up onto the third pedestal and gripped the shield by the edges. He believed that the meaning behind the weapon was more important than the weapon itself.

**_Are you certain that you want the power of the guardian? _**

Vayn gave a clear nod, and the shield disappeared in a flash of light.

**_Now, which power will you give up in exchange? _**

Vayn didn't waste any time and clutched the rod_. **So, you wish to give up the power of the mystic?**_

_"_I never believed in magic anyway," Vayn said as an answer, and the rod dissipated into white light.

Then, the pedestal Vayn was on jerked downward, causing Vayn to stumble off. The other two did the same, and the three pedestals sank back into the glass floor. Vayn staggered his way into the center, swaying back and forth from the constant rocking of the floor.

Suddenly, the edges of the pillar began to shatter inward, the breaking glass closing in on Vayn.

"Oh, cr—AAPP!" Vayn yelled as the floor beneath him broke away, leaving him to fall, again.

After several minutes of falling, Vayn saw another platform, this one with a large, church-like double door, with white frames …that he was heading straight for!

He braced himself for the impact, but it never came. Instead, he landed gently on his feet, confused, but relieved.

Then there was silence, no sudden pedestals appearing through the ground, no falling into an abyss, no shattering glass.

"So…what now?" Vayn thought out loud, hoping that the omnipotent voice would give him an answer.

He did get his answer; however, it was not from the voice. Five disturbingly familiar blobs of black rose from the pillar, locking onto Vayn with their beady yellow eyes.

Vayn managed a short gasp before his breath was locked away in his chest. He took a fearful step backward, watching as the shadows slowly approached him, cornering him on the edge of the pillar.

Finally, one of the dark creatures leapt forward and Vayn put up his arms in front of his face, thinking that that was all he could do.

**_Thunk_**

The shadow bounced back, landing stunned on its back.

Vayn opened his eyes, which he closed before the attack, and was amazed that the shield that he had chosen just moments ago had appeared in his hand, and not a moment too soon.

The shadow that had hit Vayn's shield got back up, and went back on the offensive with its friends. Vayn forced his shield against the first blob and it dispersed into a cloud of purple and black mist. He stumbled back a bit, partly from surprise, partly from the force of the attack. He snapped back to reality just in time to block another attack.

_Damn, if I knew I was going to fight, I would've chosen the freakin sword_, Vayn cursed to himself, pushing the dark thing away.

Vayn pushed another shadow back from its offensive as he yelled, "What are these things!?"

**_They are abominations created from the darkness that resides in the hearts of man,_ **the voice responded, startling Vayn. He recovered in time to smash another shadow in the head. "Which in English means…?" Vayn continued, hoping for a clearer answer.

**_When a person gives in to the darkness in his or her heart, or is swallowed by the darkness, they are transformed into these creatures before you,_** the voice specified_. **They used to be men, but now they are monsters, hunting for the hearts of others.**_

"What?!" Vayn shouted, as he sliced at a blob with the shield's edge, which resulted in the shadow bursting into purple mist.

Vayn raised his shield again, blocking another one, then pushed it back, sending it into its friend. As they were lying on the ground, stunned, Vayn leapt into the air and smashed his weapon on top of them, creating more mist.

Vayn quickly eliminated the remaining blob, which he decided to call Shadows, panting heavily, but he also felt good about destroying those dark bastards.

**_Very good_**

A flight of glass stairs appeared off the edge the pillar, leading up to another pillar which also appeared suddenly.

Vayn could tell that something bad was going to happen if he continued onto the next pillar, but shrugged his shoulders, thinking _What the hell_, _I don't have much choice anyway_, and walked up the levitating stairway, stepping gingerly from step to step.

This pillar was like the rest, made of stained glass, and also had a new image. Three key-shaped weapons were imprinted on the floor; each pointed towards the center and were close enough to one another that their tips touched at the middle of the pillar.

The first key-sword—or whatever it was suppose to be—had a silver blade and a golden-yellow guard that was in a complete square, with a black handle, connecting the top of the guard to the bottom. A silver keychain-like object hung loosely from the bottom and consisted of three circles, one large and two smaller ones, which appeared to be ears.

The second was like the first, only the colors were inverted, the blade being gold and the guard colored in metallic silver, and also had the same 'keychain' dangling from it, except this one was gold like the blade

The third had the same build-up as the other two; however the color scheme was much different. The blade was bathed in pure white, without any impurities. The handle, conversely, was all black, including the handle. A setting, or rising, sun dangled from the handle.

Deep in his chest, Vayn could feel that these strange blades were significant, although the reason remained to him a mystery.

Vayn stepped forward, slowly, to the center, looking around, expecting to see more monsters, or to see the floor break.

**_The closer you step towards the light, the greater your shadow becomes,_ **said the voice, eerily.

"You just love talking in riddles, don't ya," Vayn accused, before he felt a chill run down his spine. Something evil was coming…

He gradually turned, just in time to see his shadow, which had become exponentially bigger, float off of the pillar's surface and it began to _stand up!_

Vayn jumped and spun around, and retreated back slowly.

**_But don't be afraid…_**

Vayn's 'shadow' transformed, becoming a twelve foot high--for lack of a better word--thing. It looked humanoid, and had a large heart-shaped hole in its chest. Its face was wrapped in black tendrils, its yellow, soulless eyes uncovered.

**_For you hold a powerful weapon._**

"Yeah, easy for you to say," Vayn yelled, and turned around to run away, but stopped shortly after, finding himself without anywhere else to go. "Oh, right, I'm on a pillar…Damn it!"

Vayn turned back around. The dark giant was raising its right fist into the air, while staring down at Vayn expressionlessly.

"Oh shit…"

Vayn rolled to the left, barely dodging a large black fist that plunged into the ground where he was standing, which created a swirling black puddle. Out of the puddle, three Shadows emerged, antennas twitching.

Vayn smacked on Shadow off of the pillar, then charged another into the ground, squishing it until it burst into mist. The last one jumped onto Vayn, pinning him between his shield and the ground. "Rrr-Get the hell off me, you bastard!" Vayn cried, forcing the Shadow off and sending off the pillar.

The large monster pulled its fist out of the ground, slowly easing itself back into a standing position.

_Now, I have to kill the big one…question is_ _how,_Vayn grumbled to himself sizing up the monster. Suddenly he remembered something he read recently while he was working at the bookstore. A book by a martial arts master said_: In an encounter of with an enemy of superior physical bulk, attacks should be directed primarily towards the eyes. No matter the might of the warrior, no innate defenses can be trained of upper facial muscles…**(Got this from the KH ****Manga)**_

_Right. So I'll aim for this thing's ugly mug,_ Vayn decided to himself, raising his shield and wishing that he had a sword with him.

The monster raised its left hand up and swung down at Vayn, like he was swatting an ant. Again, Vayn rolled out of the way just in time, but this time ran up the arm towards the face, then jumped into the air. "HEY UGLY!" Vayn called down, "SURPRSIE!" Vayn twirled sideways and threw his shield with all of his strength. The shield whizzed straight into the monster's face, edge first, and lodged into it.

Vayn landed on the large creature's face, but quickly dismounted it as it let out a roar of pain. Vayn held his hands to his ears, cringing from the high volume of the scream. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw the giant plunge both of his arms into the ground next to Vayn, capturing him in twin puddles of blackness. He felt himself getting sucked into the ground, which caused him to fall over, and he tried flailing his arms and legs free, but it was no use. Vayn watched helplessly and the dark creature inched its hideous face closer to him.

Then everything went black.

**_You have been chosen…_**

----------

Vayn shot up from his bed in a cold sweat, taking sharp intakes of breath. He looked around his room in a daze. _My room…? Was it all just a dream?_ He thought, blinking several times, and turned towards the clock next to his bed, which read 6:00 A.M. He then got out of bed. He walked into the restroom and splashed cold water on his face, shaking off his drowsiness. He gazed at his reflection in the mirror, and couldn't help but imagine himself as his doppelganger with black eyes that he saw in his dream.

Vayn stepped out of the house, dressed in white jeans, a black sleeveless T-shirt, and his grey vest. He stopped at the doorstep, and stooped down to swipe up a piece of paper that was on the floor, pinned down by a small stone so that it wouldn't blow away. It read:

_**Dear Mr. Vayn ****Nite**_

**_Please come to the bookstore immediately._**

**_Signed,_**

_**Your**** Boss**_

Nite. That was his last name, thought he rarely used it.

Vayn turned the paper around to see if anything else was written. Nope.

With a shrug, Vayn made his way to the bookstore he worked at, barely meeting anyone along the way.

"Mr. Nomura?" Vayn called as he entered the bookstore. He didn't see anyone around, just silence. Vayn walked by the front desk, and he saw another letter on top of a book. He picked it up and read it aloud. "Surprise?" he read, confused.

"SURPRISE!!"

Vayn jumped back, almost tripping over the table behind, his heart skipping several beats.

What happened was a group had jumped out from behind the desk, carrying a large decorated cake, and shouted the previous line, which almost gave Vayn a heart attack, literally.

Vayn held his palm to his chest, feeling it pump rapidly. He looked up to see the smiling faces of, of course, Sora and the whole group, including Vayn's boss, Mr. Nomura.

"Heh, we got you good, eh Vayn?" Sora said with his usual wide grin.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?" Vayn bellowed, still trying to slow down his heart rate.

"Aw, what's wrong Vayn," Tidus said, definitely enjoying the sight of Vayn scared, "Don't feel like partying?"

Vayn sighed deeply, his heart finally returning to its normal pace. "You could've warned me," Vayn grumbled. Sora hopped over the desk and planted a coned party hat on Vayn's head, saying, "If we told you, it wouldn't of been a surprise, right?"

"Exactly," Vayn pointed out, cracking a small grin.

-----------

It was around noon time when everyone left the bookstore, filled with cake made by Sora and his mother. Vayn "Thanks again for the day off, Mr. Nomura," Vayn said as he exited the store. "Don't mention it," he said back, muffled by a mouth full of cake.

The group of seven, Tidus, Wakka, Selphie, Sora, Riku, Kairi and Vayn, walked to the dock, chatting happily with each other. Well, everyone except Vayn, who was busy reflecting on his dream from earlier.

"Hey, are you alright, man?" Tidus asked, wrapping an arm around his neck.

Vayn blinked, before finally answering quietly, "I'm fine, just didn't get much sleep last night."

"You'll still be able to help us with the raft, right?" Kairi asked. Vayn turned his head. "If I say no, can I not help?" he asked, grinning slightly. As a response, Kairi grabbed Vayn by the ear, dragging him towards his boat. "Nice try," she said. "Thought so," Vayn grumbled, hopping into his boat.

-------------

Sora groggily opened his eyes, almost blinded by the afternoon sun. He barely raised his head up to look past the waves, trying to confirm that he was still on the islands and not in that bizarre world, getting devoured by the darkness from that dark monster. Content with the crystal blue serf he saw, he yawned loudly and laid back his head to go back to sleep.

"Whoa!" he gasped when he suddenly saw a familiar red head's face directly in front of him, and shot up.

Kairi giggled, amused with the reaction. "Give me a break, Kairi!"

"Sora, you lazy bum," Kairi replied, placing her hands on the hem of her pink skirt, "I knew I would find you snoozing down here."

"No, this huge black thing swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe, I couldn't—ow!" Sora's recollection of his dream was cut short when Kairi slapped the back of his head lightly. "Were you dreaming again?" Kairi asked, accusingly. "It wasn't a dream!" Sora said defensively, but then stopped and drifted his eyes down to the ground. "Or was it?…I don't know," he finished quietly.

Vayn joined the two, carrying a heavy load of wood. He dropped it with a heavy thud and asked, "Hey guys! Was Sora sleeping again?"

"Hey! I wasn't sleeping that one time, I was just resting my eyes!" Sora countered. Vayn put his hands out in front of him in his defense. "All right, you weren't sleeping, geez."

Sora looked back over to the ocean. "What was that place," he said quietly, "It was so bizarre…"

"Yeah, sure," Kairi said back, walking past him and towards the shore line. "Huh? What place?" Vayn asked, intrigued. "Oh, just some place Sora saw in his day-dream," Kairi answered before Sora could say anything. "Oh," Vayn said flatly, losing his intrigue, "again?"

"Hey!" Sora shouted back. "What?" Vayn said innocently.

Sora turned back to Kairi, deciding to ignore Vayn for a while, and asked, "Hey, Kairi, what was your home town like?"

"I told you before, I don't remember," she answered with a small chuckle. "But ya know, I wouldn't mind to see it!"

"I want to see it too, as well as any other world out there! I want to see them all," Sora put in, enthusiastically.

Vayn stayed quiet, letting the two friends have their 'moment'.

"Aren't you forgetting about me?" The three turned around and saw a silver headed boy in tight blue jeans and a yellow sleeveless shirt with dark blue straps that wrapped over the shoulder from the back and crossed at the front, holding a log in his gloved hands.

"Well, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft," Riku said. "There's a pile of crap here that begs to differ," Vayn replied, motioning his hand over the pile of things next to him.

"Okay, only the two of us are working on the raft," Riku said, rather annoyed by the correction. He tossed a log to Sora, who fumbled his hands around and clumsily caught it, and strode over to Kairi. Putting his fists on his hips, he boldly said, "And you're just as lazy as he is."

"So you noticed," she replied with a giggle, "Okay, let's finish it together! I'll race you!"

"What? Are you kidding," Riku said as he sat down next to Sora.

"Ready, GO!"

Sora and Riku shot each other a quick glance and, simultaneously, jumped to their feet and dashed across the sand, leaving Kairi, also running but much more slowly, and Vayn, who walked happily behind, watching the three running off, without a care in the world.

Little did any of them know that everything was about to change.

* * *

**Cliffhanger time! I feel rather proud of this one.**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Please Comment and tell me what you think!**


	3. Storm

**Here it is, chapter 3! You can probably tell what this chapter is about by the title. This one is a long one, so better get comfy.**

**I DON'T OWN KINGDOM HEARTS**

**With disclaimers out of the way, enjoy:**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 3: Storm**

Sora rubbed his tender shoulder, rotating it, trying in vain to get rid of the soreness. Vayn noticed this and decided to rub it in. "You shouldn't have carried _all_ of the supplies at once, and _then_ sparred with each of us," Vayn said, complacently. "Hey," Sora shot back, "I wanted to get it done fast!"

Vayn gave an insincere apology for the harmless joke, and the four of them, being Vayn, Sora, Riku, and Kairi, went back to gazing at the vast ocean from the paopu tree that grew on the lone islet right next to the island they usually spent their free time on. It was one of their favorite places to spend brief moments of twilight, before they had to row back to the main land.

The four of them continued to sit in silence, until Sora, who had ceased caring for his shoulder after Vayn's comment, broke it with one of his famous, naive questions, "So, Kairi's world is out there somewhere, right?"

"Could be," Riku answered quickly, "Though we'll never know by staying here."

"But how far could a raft take us?" Sora asked, leaning past Kairi to see the silver headed teen.

"Spiky's got a point," Vayn said between Kairi and Riku, using his nickname for Sora that said teen didn't like at all, "What do we do if the raft idea fails?" Sora gave Vayn a serious glare. "Don't call me that!" he yelled, even though he knew it was just a joke.

"Who knows?" Riku said in response, ignoring the brunette's outburst. "If we have to, we'll think of something else."

Kairi sat in thought for a couple seconds. "What if we do get to another world," she asked with her usual cheerful attitude, "what would you do there?"

Riku mused over this question for a brief moment. "You know, I haven't really thought about," he said at last. "It's just that I've always wondered why we're here, on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?" Riku continued his monologue, in a more enthusiastic tone, "And if there really are other worlds, then are world is just a little piece of something much greater. So, we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"

Sora folded his arms behind his back and laid himself down on the tree. "I don't know," he answered, not even caring to think that hard. "Exactly," Riku pointed out, as if he was expecting that answer. "That's why we have get out there and find out. Just sitting here won't change a thing; it's the same old stuff. So let's go."

Vayn gave a small applause from his spot between Riku and Kairi as he said lazily, "Nice speech."

Riku scoffed at the smiling teen's comment, folding his arms over his chest, having nothing to say in response. (Vayn just loved poking fun at his good friends.)

"What made you think about all this," Vayn asked, changing to a more serious tone of voice.

"Actually, it was thanks to you and Kairi," Riku answered coolly, running a hand through his sleek hair. "If Kairi didn't come here, I probably wouldn't have thought of any of this. Plus, your arrival on the islands made me wonder of the outside world even more." Riku turned his head towards Kairi and Vayn and said, "Kairi, Vayn, thanks."

"Um…you're welcome," Kairi answered hesitantly, not quite sure how she was of help. Vayn however, smiled and answered, "Glad I could be of service," although, on the inside, he wasn't so sure that he was.

Shortly after the conversation, the four decided to head back. Kairi was the first to cross the old, yet sturdy wooden bridge, followed by Vayn who stopped half way when he heard Riku shout "Sora."

Sora caught a yellow star shaped object that was thrown to him by the silver haired teenager. "You wanted one, didn't you?"

"A paopu fruit?" Sora said, confused, staring at the star as Riku passed by him.

"If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined and they remain in each other's lives, no matter what." Riku then motioned his head towards Kairi, who was walking out of the sea-side shack and out of ear-shot. "Come on, I know you what to try it out," he finished with a teasing smirk.

"What are you ta-…?" Sora's sentence was cut short when he finally realized what his best friend meant, which was followed by his face adopting a faint, but visible, shade of red. Riku laughed playfully and hopped off of the bridge, dropping seven feet below to the sand, and ran off towards Kairi, still laughing as he went. Sora tossed the paopu fruit to the side and followed suit, hopping off of the bridge, and landing sands with an audibly thud of his large (really large in Vayn's opinion) yellow shoes, and went into pursuit after Riku.

Vayn sighed and hopped off of the bridge too, taking a small glance at the discarded paopu fruit before he did. The legend of the paopu fruit, which Riku took the time to describe, was something that Vayn never believed in, no matter how many times he was told otherwise. I mean, how could a fruit have the power to do that, right?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------**Disney Castle**------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Donald Duck, Disney Castle's greatest mage, aside from the king himself, made his daily routine rounds down the castle hallway that overlooked the perfectly kept garden on its left. As a couple of magic-controlled brooms marched by the mage, carrying their own buckets full of soap water, Donald gave them a passing nod, tipping his hat, which was oddly curved at the top.

The duck mage, dressed in his blue magician's outfit (minus the pants) with black sleeves over the smaller, blue ones, made his final stop of the morning, stepping up to a HUGE white double-door that was as exuberant as it was large. He cleared his throat and knocked on the door. A small portion of it, probably about ten times smaller than the whole thing, swung inwards, allowing the duck to enter.

The next room was also huge, with white walls covering the perimeter. Donald, his head lowered in a bow, waddled towards the throne that sat at the far end of the room, his footsteps muffled by the red carpet that stretched from the doorway to the throne. "Good morning, your majesty," Donald greeted, his voice resembling a quack of a duck, "How are you doing this-…" Donald finally picked his head up and saw that he was talking to air. The throne was empty, except for a curled up yellow-orange canine that was partly asleep on the pillow of the throne.

"WHAT!" Donald shouted incoherently from his bill, awaking the sleeping dog. The dog picked something up with his mouth and walked over to the duck with a wagging tail. Donald rocketed up to the dog and quickly grabbed the object, an envelope with a seal comprised of three circles, from its mouth. He tore open the envelope and skimmed through the note inside. He doubled-blinked afterwards…

And sprinted through the door, almost mowing down several broom-servants on his way to the garden, squawking as he went.

* * *

Goofy, the captain of the royal guards of Disney castle was making good use of the peaceful times that covered the world and was sleeping lazily on the garden. Even when Donald charged up the slightly inclined hill and began shouting to him, the dog-like captain, dressed in a gray/orange shirt, black/brown pants and metallic armor around his arms and waist, continued to snore rather loudly. "Wake up, Goofy! This is serious!" 

When his shouting proved ineffective, Donald decided to take a different approach. He raised his index finger (Or feather, whichever is right) and chanted, "_Thunder_!"

A small bolt came down and struck Goofy, filling his body with enough jolts to awaken him. He gradually picked himself up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Oh, hey there Donald," Goofy slurred, "Good morn-"

"We've got a problem Goofy!" Donald interrupted, waving his arms dramatically. Then he stopped and leaned in closer, cupping his hands and whispered, "But don't tell anybody."

Goofy blinked, confused. "Queen Minnie?" Donald put his hands/feathers on his hips and pointed his bill up haughtily. "Not even the queen," he said. "Daisy?" Goofy asked, still dazed. "NO!" Donald shouted, annoyed. "It's _top secret_."

"G'morning ladies," Goofy greeted, waving his gloved hand and looking beyond the court mage. Donald blinked and nervously turned around. Behind him was none other than the Queen of Disney, Minnie, and Daisy (Also a duck like Donald). Daisy glared back at Donald, tapping her webbed foot impatiently while Minnie simply stared back gently, a trace amount of worry on her kind face.

Donald laughed nervously and, under his breath, mumbled, "Oh boy…"

**-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Destiny Islands-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

On the morning of the next day, Vayn groggily left his bed, and poked his head out of the window, talking a deep breath of the ocean air. However, there was a sinking feeling inside of him. Something was different about this particular day…

"Vayn!"

Vayn blinked and saw Sora ridding by on his skateboard, dressed in his usual red, baggy shorts that had a chain coming out of one pocket and were tied tightly around his waist with a blue belt, a red shirt, white and black vest, and his silver crown necklace around his neck. The spiky head kid waved as he went, yelling cheerfully, "You better hurry up, sleepy-head!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'," Vayn grumbled, heading for the door. He threw on a white, sleeve-less T-shirt and a black vest (His personal favorite) and clumsily put on his favorite pair of white shoes with black bottoms and red laces, which were, on a unrelated note, about half of Sora's size.

As he reached for the handle of the door, he felt a chill run down his spine, an evil, malicious chill that caused his hair to stand up on end.

"This world's time is coming to an end," a dark voice said in a monotone. Vayn instinctively spun around, but saw no one there. "This world will soon be eclipsed by the darkness, never to return."

Vayn's eyes darted around franticly, trying to find the source of the voice. "Who's there?" Vayn shouted, sounding a bit shaky as he did, "Show yourself!"

"All in good time."

Just like that, the chill was gone. Vayn took several shaky breaths, trying to ease his nerves.

"Hurry up, Vayn! What's taking you?" came a voice from outside. Finally, Vayn opened the door and left the house, trying to tell himself that it was all in his head, although, in the back of his head, he could feel it was more than that.

"About time!" Sora said, standing next to a tree with one foot on his board. Sora then noticed that Vayn's face was a bit flushed, like he had seen a ghost. "What's wrong?" Vayn blinked, barely realizing that he was asked a question. "U-um, nothing," he lied, not wanting to go into detail about what he had just experienced.

"If you say so," Sora replied, kicking off the tree and skating away, grinding off the occasional rail.

* * *

Sora landed on his boat, along with his board, and struck a victorious pose. "How was _that_!" he exclaimed. 

Vayn ambled onto the docks, hands dug into the pockets of his black pants. "Showoff," he mumbled, secretly jealous that he couldn't do that to save his life.

* * *

"Seagulls eggs?!" 

On the beach, Sora, Riku, Kairi and Vayn were looking over the rest of the needed supplies, as said by Riku, the self-proclaimed leader of the expedition, dressed in his usual black/ yellow shirt with black straps around the front and shoulders, tight blue pants, and white and blue shoes.

"You expect us to _eat_ seagull eggs?!" Vayn shouted again, looking at his specific list incredulously.

"What's wrong with seagull eggs?" Sora asked innocently, his head cocked to the side.

Vayn stared back at the brunette with a 'Do-I-even-have-to-say-it' look.

"Don't complain," Riku said calmly, "Remember, we are leaving tomorrow, so we need to finish getting our supplies today."

With that, Riku sauntered away. "But why seagull eggs?" Vayn asked again, still not liking the idea of eating those things. The other two just shrugged and left to get their supplies.

* * *

"Damn seagulls…" Vayn muttered under his breath as he climbed one of the tall palm trees. On top sat a seagull egg, which Vayn reluctantly was aiming for. 

Finally, Vayn reached the top and picked up the large egg. "Okay, now-- ow! Who-a--AHHH!"

Just as Vayn had retrieved the egg, a stray blizball struck him straight on the forehead, knocking him off balance, and resulted in him falling of the tree.

Vayn slowly unveiled his eyes and blinked several times to clear his vision. Seconds later, a sandy blonde headed kid and another teen with orange-red hair appeared. "Are you okay, man?" asked Wakka, a blizball tucked under his arm.

"What happened?" Vayn slurred, hoisting himself up and finding the seagull egg on his stomach; luckily, its fall was broken by Vayn's gut.

"Yeah, about that," Tidus began to explain, chuckling falsely, "funny story: we were playing around on the beach and Wakka, here, kicked it a _little_ bit too hard."

"Sorry!" Wakka chimed in, and the rest didn't have to be explained.

Tidus and Wakka helped the dazed Vayn to his feet, and once he had steadied himself, Vayn grabbed his egg. After reassuring the two blizball playing boys that he was fine, Vayn went off towards the other side of the island.

For a brief moment, he could've sworn that he saw a Shadow creature, one from his dream, crawl his way into the secret place next to the waterfall, but after a quick blink, it was gone. _Must've hit my head harder than I thought_, Vayn mumbled to himself, and, after taking another look at the cave entrance, he continued towards the back of the island.

* * *

Vayn pushed the heavy wooden door open, and just as he stepped past the threshold, a blur of silver rushed by him, followed closely by another blur, this one being brown. Vayn stumbled back a bit, almost getting flattened by the two rushing figures. 

"All right, I win! Looks like the ship's name is gonna be Highwind after all Sora!"

The two blurs had been Riku and Sora, racing each other. "What was that about?" Vayn asked Kairi as she stepped by him. "They were racing to decide what the name of the raft was going to be and who the captain would be," she answered. "Ah." Vayn strolled over towards the two boys, both of them sweating from the run, and overhead a small bit of their conversation; something about a 'paopu fruit' and a 'joke'.

"I got your stupid egg," Vayn muttered, holding said item up to prove it, "It wasn't easy to get, either." He rubbed his forehead, recalling his little trip down the tree. "Nice, Vayn," Riku said, "Place it by the raft with the rest of the supplies."

"Oh, right," Sora interrupted suddenly, "I still need one more mushroom! Be right back!" Sora ran out the door, the door shutting loudly when he was gone.

"Yo, Vayn," Riku shouted as Vayn was walking off towards the raft to drop off the seagull egg, holding a wooden sword in his gloved hand, "Wanna go a round?"

"Sure, why not?" Vayn said, and broke out into a run to drop off the egg.

Riku and Vayn faced off on the small islet, the same one that bore the paopu tree, which was Riku's favorite place to spar. "What's the score again?" Riku asked, having trouble remembering just how many times he had beaten Vayn and vice versa.

"4-to-5, you're leading, _for now_," Vayn answered, saying the last part confidently, raising his wooden sword next to his head, both hands gripping the hilt, right elbow bent upwards, left elbow bent down, and the tip of the sword pointed at Riku. "We'll see about that," he said, equally as cocky, and rose his wooden sword next to his head, like Vayn, but held his left arm out, practically taunting his opponent to come get some.

Vayn lunged forward and wood hit wood as Riku quickly guarded the strike. Then, Riku pushed his weapon upward, unbalancing Vayn, and followed up with a jump-strike. Vayn side-stepped this and swung for Riku's midsection in a wide arc. Riku dodged this with a high jump, and he turned in the middle of the jump, landing a few meters from Vayn and facing him.

He assumed his fighting stance, and added, "Is that all you've got?" Vayn advanced and the two exchanged blows, but never landed a hit. Finally, Vayn stepped back and continued to retreat, deflecting attacks from Riku as he did. Soon, his back was against the nearest palm tree. "Not good," Vayn grunted as he guarded a blow from Riku. He pushed up and kicked Riku in the gut, which Riku countered by pushing hard off the ground and kicked Vayn hard against the tree, causing a coconut to fall to the ground.

**(A/N: If you've played KH 1, you know how annoying that attack is.)**

Vayn shook off the dizziness that had engulfed him and managed to groan, "I hate it when you do that." Riku just shrugged, a smug smile plastered on his face.

Just as Vayn managed to pick himself up, Riku lunged forward and swung at him. Vayn quickly hopped to the left spun clockwise, swinging his weapon simultaneously. Riku calmly reacted and jumped back, gracefully landing atop the paopu tree. "Heh, is that it?" Riku asked in a belittling voice.

Vayn glared competitively at Riku, but soon his gaze drifted upwards, where he saw an opportunity. "Not exactly," he stated, and struck the trunk of the palm tree he was standing next to.

This action was met with a bemused stare from Riku. "What are you-"

_Konk_

Riku didn't even finish his sentence before a coconut from the palm tree fell and struck his head. He stumbled around for a few moments, numbly, and then dropped of the tree, seeing stars.

Next thing he knew, Vayn's head was looming over him, a victorious and somewhat amused smile spread across his face. "5-5," Vayn cited, extending a hand down to Riku. Riku glowered and reluctantly took the hand, and was helped to his feet. Vayn put an arm around Riku's next, still smiling. "Ya have to admit, that _was_ a nice move," Vayn gloated, unable to remain humble.

"Geez, Vayn," Riku complained, rubbing his sore scalp, "You could've given me a concussion."

"Yeah, yeah," Vayn said, sarcastically. Riku shook his head and mumbled, "First Sora, and now _Vayn_ beats me. I must be slipping."

"Maybe you're out of shape," Vayn shot back calmly. "Whatever…" Riku muttered and then walked off; raising his hand over his head as he said that he was going to double-check the supplies.

Feeling a bit overbearing over his victory, Vayn decided to spar with Sora to see who'd win. Sora was second best fighter among the seven, as said by the group. When Sora and Riku sparred, everyone watched. Usually, Riku would be the victor, but Sora did win at times, which was more often than Vayn.

"Oi, Wakka," Vayn called as he walked down the beach, raising his voice to be heard over the roaring falls nearby, "Have you seen Sora?"

"I saw him go back into the secret place a while back," Wakka answered back in his accent. "Ya wanna play some blizball?"

"No thanks," Vayn answered back, and he entered the cave.

* * *

"W-who's there?" 

Previous, Sora had been touching up on the drawing of him and Kairi that the two of them had made years back, adding an image of him handing the Kairi head a star shaped object. Just as he finished, he felt a presence behind him, and when he turned around to confirm it, he found that a man in a black trench coat, face veiled.

"This world has been connected; tied to the darkness…Soon to be completely eclipsed," the hooded man said in an emotionless monotone.

"Uh…what?" Sora asked, clueless.

"You do not yet know what lies beyond the door," the man continued, ignoring Sora's question. "Are you from another world?" Sora asked, a bit nervous about what the man was describing.

"There is so very much to learn; you understand so little," the man still continued, still paying no heed to the boy. Sora's nature coaxed him to respond with, "Oh yeah?" Well you'll see! I'm gonna get out and learn what's out there!"

"A meaningless effort," the man said, actually responding to Sora this time, "One who knows nothing can understand _nothing_."

Sora glared at the man, then turned towards the wooden door next to him. For as long as he could remember, that wooden door had been there, built into the back of the cave wall. Also for as long as he could recall, he and the others, that being himself, Riku and Vayn, couldn't open the door since it lacked door handles.

Sora turned back towards the hooded man, but he was gone, vanished in the brief moment that Sora looked away. "Yo, Sora! You in here?" Sora snapped his vision from the cloaked man's previous position and looked over to the mouth of the cave where Vayn was now leaning against the stone. "What's taking you so long?" Vayn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"D-did you see that man?" Sora stammered, pointing to the wall adjacent to him. "Um…what are you talking about?" Vayn asked, looking from the wall Sora was pointing and the brunette. "_That man_!" Sora repeated hastily, almost shouting. "He said some stuff about darkness and-…"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there," Vayn interrupted, motioning his hands for Sora to calm himself. "Did you get high off the mushrooms or something," Vayn added, sarcastically.

"What?! No," Sora shouted, "There was a man in a trench coat here just a few seconds ago!"

"Uh, Sora," Vayn interjected before Sora could say more, "If he was here and he left, then he would've had to have gone through the tunnel and I didn't see any man in a trench coat go by as I came through."

"B-but, I…"

Sora fell silent, unable to perceive whether or not the man he saw was real or just a figment of his imagination. He didn't get much time to mull it over, though, because Vayn soon pinched Sora by the ear and dragged him away from the door saying, "Come on, dreamer-boy, let's go."

"Owowow, all right, I'm going!" Sora shouted, slapping Vayn's hand off of his ear and then walking out of the cave, rubbing his sore ear.

Vayn began to follow, but froze. An odd sensation filled his senses, like he was being called out to by something. He turned around, and, on the mysterious wooden door, he saw an amazingly brilliant golden keyhole etched in the center. "What the…" Vayn gaped, and then rubbed his eyes with his forearm, unable to believe what he was seeing.

When he looked back at the door, the keyhole was gone, like it was never there in the first place. "Okay…Maybe I'm just tired," Vayn said aloud to himself, and slowly started out of the cave, taking one last glance at the door.

* * *

With the supply collection finished, Vayn and Riku stayed with the raft to sort them out, in easy chore. 

With everything set for the next morning, Vayn said his farewells to Riku and headed for the docks. On the pier, Vayn could make out the figures of Sora and Kairi sitting, apparently conversing.

"Y'know, Riku's changed," Kairi said, swinging her legs happily over the edge of the pier. "What do you mean?" Sora asked. "Well…" Kairi hummed thoughtfully.

"You okay?"

"Sora, let's take the raft and go-just the two of us!" Kairi suddenly exclaimed. "What?!"

"Just kidding!" Kairi giggled. "What's gotten into you?" Sora asked, gigging as he did. "You're the one who's changed, Kairi."

"Maybe…"

An uneasy silence fell over the two friends, Sora having trouble to find anything to say. "I was a little scared at first," Kairi said at last, "but now I'm ready. I know that, no matter where we go or what we see, I'll be able to come back here, right?"

"Yeah, of course!" Sora proclaimed. "That's good…"

"Sora, don't ever change," Kairi said, catching Sora off guard. She stood up, folding one of her arms behind her back and held the other arm. "I just can't wait, 'til we set sail," she said quietly looking beyond the sunset horizon, "It'll be great…"

Sora stared at Kairi. She looked so beautiful, the disappearing sunlight setting on her smooth skin, her hair blowing in the soft wind…

"HEY guys! What'cha talking 'bout over here!"

Right on cue, Vayn appeared wrapping his arms around Kairi and Sora, nearly scaring Sora out of his skin. Smilingly broadly at both of them, he said, "Am I interrupting something important?" He stressed the last part in a way that suggested romance between the two. "What?!" Sora shouted looking between Vayn and Kairi, feeling his cheeks burning brightly. "Ha ha, Vayn, very funny," Kairi laughed cynically, escaping Vayn's grip.

"Did I miss something?"

The group turned around and found that Riku and finally arrived. "Nope, just messing around with these two," Vayn answered, pointing at said two with his thumbs. He could feel the two of them bore holes into the side of his heads, but he did his best to ignore it.

Riku looked confusedly at Sora, Kairi, and Vayn, but shrugged and sighed, "Whatever."

He hopped onto his boat, painted on the stern with '**Riku ****Akemi**'. Sora followed suit, hopping onto the boat marked with '**Sora ****Hikari**', in sloppier hand writing then Riku's. Kairi did the same, stepping onto her own boat, with '**Kairi ****Aidane**'. (Kairi had been adopted by the mayor on the day of the meteor shower, so she had been given his last name.)

Vayn, however, stayed on the pier looking back at the entrance to the secret place, deep in thought.

"Hey, you comin'?" Sora asked. Vayn blinked and turned to Sora. "Maybe later," he answered, and walked off.

Sora stared after Vayn, then turned to the other two and asked, "What's up with him?" He got a pair of shrugs as a response, but nevertheless, the three of them rowed back to the mainland.

* * *

Vayn was now on the back end of the island, pushing a boulder out of the way of a hole in the wall, making a miniature cavern. This mini-cave was a quiet place that Vayn visited at times when he needed to think; needless to say, this was one of those times. The cave was virtually empty, now devoid of the mushroom that grew in the back corner. 

Vayn laid back against the sandy floor, folding his hands behind his head for comfort. He looked up at the stone ceiling as he reflected upon the events that occurred that day as well as yesterday: The 'dream', the voice in his house, the key-hole thing on the wooden door.

He was thinking back hard for several minutes, so hard in fact, that he didn't even realize it when he began to drift off into sleep.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------**Disney Castle----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

_**Donald: Sorry to rush off without sayin' goodbye, but there's big trouble brewin'. Not sure why, but the stars have been blinkin' out, one by one. And that means disaster can't be far behind. I hate to leave you all but I've gotta go check into it. There's someone with a 'key'—the key to our survival. So I need you and Goofy to find him, and stick with him. Got it? We need that key or we're doomed! So go to Traverse Town and find Leon. He'll point you in the right direction.**_

_**P.S. **_

_**Would ya apologize to Minnie for me? Thanks, pal.**_

Donald sighed and looked up, sharing a worried look with Daisy and the Queen. "What could this mean?" Daisy asked. "It means we'll just have to trust the king," Minnie replied, forcing a smile.

"Gwarsh," Goofy put in, "I sure hope he's alright."

"Your highness," Donald spoke up, saluting, "Don't worry, we'll the king _and_ this key!"

Minnie sighed, gratefully, and smiled, "Thank you, both of you."

Donald switched his vision to Daisy. "Daisy, can you take care of the nephews for me?" Daisy smiled back. "Of course. Now you two be careful, now.

The mage turned to leave but the queen stopped him with, "Oh, I almost forgot." She motioned her gloved hand towards the only table in the study. "He will accompany you to chronicle your travels."

Donald leaned in, staining to see who she was mentioning. He heard a faint 'thud' and the scampering of tiny feet, followed by the feeling of something jumping up onto his small tail, then onto his hat.

A cricket wearing a nice suit and a top hat dropped down onto his bill, startling the duck. "Here I am!" he said, then bowed, tipping his tip hat. "Cricket's the name; Jiminy Cricket at you service."

"We hope for your safe return," Minnie said, "Please, help the king."

Donald saluted, and Goofy stepped back, saluting to Donald. "Oh, no you don't," said Donald, grabbing Goofy by the arm, dragging him through the door out of the study, "You're coming too!"

The three residents of Disney Castle marched down the flight of stairs that lead down to the Gummi Ship Hanger. Not liking the silence of the dim lit stairway, Goofy asked, "Gwarsh, Jiminy, your world disappeared too?"

Jiminy sighed, and looked down at the floor. "It was terrible. We were scattered…as far as I can see, I was the only one to make it to this castle," he said solemnly. Donald nudged Goofy firmly. "Goofy, you know that asking those kind of questions is not allowed," he whispered vehemently. "Oh, right," Goofy said dumbly, "I gotcha. While we are on other worlds, we can't let on where we're from. We hafta protect the world border!"

Donald sighed in annoyance. "_Order_," he corrected. "Right, a-hyuck, world order," Goofy said. Donald sighed again, only louder. Goofy then fiddled with his helmet. "I guess we're gonna need new duds when he get there."

The door slid open, revealing a large, futuristic-looking hanger, machinery clinking and clanking everywhere. Donald led the way to a tube. "Hello up there! Donald Duck to launch crew! Any time you're ready!" he shouted into the tube that came from the ground, waking up two chipmunks in a booth at the top of the hanger. The one named Chip, who had a black nose and one prominent tooth, yawned. "Ah, right, be right with you," he slurred. Behind him, his look alike (Besides his nose, which was red, and his two buck teeth), Dale, busily pressed several buttons.

A large, red and yellow ship with white wings rose from the floor through a hole that slide open in the ground. "Here we go, the Kingdom Model," Dale said, cheerfully, "This would do nicely." Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy, along with Pluto, boarded the ship, preparing to launch. The Queen and Daisy entered the hanger to see off the party.

Donald gave the two a confident thumbs-up coupled with a wink. "Alright, which exit do you guys want to take," Chip asked, still half-asleep. "Front door, please," Donald replied.

"Um…okay," Chip said, pressing a large red button. The floor slid open and the party dropped through, screaming all the way. "I-I SAID FR-ONT!!!" Donald screeched, waking Chip up fully. Dale stared hard at him. "Heh," Chip chuckled half-heartedly, "I thought he said 'through the floor'."

The Gummi Ship popped out the other end of the pipe and rocketed into the vast expanse of space. "N-next stop," Donald slurred, hiccupping, and feeling a bit uneasy from the fall, as was the rest of the troupe, "Traverse Town, ugh…I think I'm gonna be sick…"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------**Destiny Islands**------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sora was lying down on his bed, looking up at a toy pirate ship that hung from the ceiling (It was a small personal fantasy of his to be a pirate). As he was staring at the model ship, he began to remember the words Kairi had spoken: _"I just can't wait, 'til we set sail…It'll be great,"_

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard lighting crackling in the distance. "A storm?" He turned over to see that it was raining, the wind beginning to pick up. He could make out the outline of storm clouds hovering over the island. Sora shot up in a panic and blurted, "Oh no, the raft!"

He opened the window quickly and jumped out, running over to the pier. Soon after, his mother's voice rang out in the house. "Sora! dinners ready, come on down. Sora?"

Sora hopped onto the pier on the island and quickly made a note of something. "Riku's boat, and Kairi's, and Vayn's too!"

He turned to look at the stormy sky and saw what was at the time the most amazing and strange, thing he had ever seen.

"Wha-what is that thing?"

* * *

Shadows everywhere, surrounding him, suffocating him; there was nothing he could do…

Vayn snapped awake, gasping heavily. "It...was just a dream," Vayn panted to himself reassuringly. He checked his surroundings. He was still in the cave, now darker than it was when he entered. "Wow it's late. Guess I'd better get moving."

He pushed the boulder away and stepped outside, surprised by the rain that began to pelt him. A lightning bolt cracked, striking the ocean just east of Vayn's position. "A storm?" Vayn thought out loud, covering his eyes. He looked up to see how bad the clouds looked, and saw the one thing he had hoped to never have seen again. "No…," he whispered.

A massive ball of dark energy hovered over him, sucking in debris from the island, just like it had done four years ago. "No, no, no, NO!" Vayn repeated over and over to himself, falling to his knees.

Suddenly, he felt the presence of evil around him. He quickly looked up, and saw the yet another horrible sight. Several blobs of shadow rushed around him, then emerged from the ground, paralyzing Vayn with a deadly gaze from beady yellow eyes. Vayn's breath locked in his throat, and he stumbled back, clawing the muddy sand behind him to get away.

The Shadows leapt and tackled Vayn to the ground, binding him. The ground below him gave way, becoming a black portal. Slowly, he felt himself being sucked in, his skin burning from the extreme cold of the darkness. _I'm going to die, _Vayn thought in a panic. He shut his eyes, struggling to breathe. Visions of his friends, his home, and his parent's death began to flash in his head.

_Don't be afraid-you hold a powerful weapon…Your heart…_: These words echoed inside Vayn's mind.

Vayn's eyes shot open. "GET! AWAY!!!"

As if it was by command—and maybe it was—A light exploded around Vayn, scattering and destroying the Shadows. Vayn breathed deep and steady, then finally noticed that he was now holding an item, a somewhat heavy item at that.

In his right hand, he was gripping a sword—well sort of. It had more of an appearance of a key then a sword. Its blade was white with key-like teeth at the end. Its guard was conversely black as was the handle. From the bottom of the guard hung a keychain sort of object that appeared to be a rising/setting sun.

"No way…" Vayn gasped his voice distant. _It's that sword from my dream!_

A Shadow emerged in front of Vayn and jumped up, extending its short arm forward. Vayn reacted quickly and sliced upwards, cutting the creature in half with one blow, creating purple/black mist. Vayn blinked and stared at his new blade with a joyful look. "Now _that's _what I'm talking about!" Vayn exclaimed enthusiastically. He ran up the hill and jumped over to the small window/cave that led back to the front of the island, ineptly slicing through more Shadows as he went, finding it difficult since he wasn't used to fighting with a actually metal sword.

* * *

Sora ran across the old bridge between the island and its small islet beside it.

"Riku!" Sora called half away across. "Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!" Sora shouted, now across the bridge.

Riku simply tilted his head back, apparently oblivious to Sora's question. "The door…had opened," he said quietly. "What?" Sora gulped, unnerved by his best friend's statement. "The door had opened, Sora," Riku repeated, almost excited by this, seemingly unaware of the destruction occurring around him, "Now he can go to the outside world!"

Sora threw his to the side in disagreement. "What are you talking about?! We gotta find Kairi-."

"Kairi's coming with us," Riku interrupted, rather forcibly. Sora recoiled in slight shock, then glowered at Riku. "Once we step though, we might not be able to come back," Riku observed, staring deep into the dark mass overhead. "We may never see our parents again," he continued, a hint of excitement in his voice. "There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance; we can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"

Riku took his eyes off the black sphere and looked at Sora, extending an arm to him. "Riku…" Sora whispered, not believing what he was hearing.

Suddenly, a pit of darkness opened up below Riku, slowly reaching out black tendrils that wrapped around Riku, although said teen didn't even flinch.

Sora lunged forward, ready to grab Riku and pull him away, but his feet abruptly froze, stuck to the earth below him. A similar darkness appeared below Sora, also binding him with tendrils. He struggled to free himself while at the same time trying to reach out to Riku, winching as the dark vines burned his skin with its extreme coldness.

Their hands were mere centimeters apart. "Riku!" Sora gasped. He was then quickly smothered by darkness, cutting off his air supply. For several seconds he stayed like this, senses frozen over, unable to breathe; He felt like this was it…

There was a sudden flooding of light, and in an instant, Sora was back on the islands.

Sora looked at his right hand, finding that he was now holding a sword…or was it a key? Whatever it was, its blade was silver with key-like teeth at the end and its guard was golden yellow with a black handle. From the guard hung a symbol composed of three circles, two small ones and a big one.

_Keyblade…Keyblade…_whispered a voice in Sora's mind.

He instinctively spun around, finding more dark shadows from his dreams crawling at him. "Let's see if this works," he said hopefully, and he lunged forward, bashing a Shadow into mist. Happy with the result, he spun counter-clockwise, slicing the other two in half. "How you like me now?!" Sora shouted, swinging his new found sword. In response, even more Shadows rose from the ground. "Oh…"

* * *

Vayn was now at the front of the island, running by the pier. "So, the others are here too," he noted, seeing three more boats docked, pelted by the stormy waters. Slicing through more Shadows, Vayn made his way down the beach, getting steadily tired.

He stopped momentarily to catch his breath, and turned around, finding more Shadows. "Geez, can't you bastards bother someone else?" he complained, slowly stepping backwards.

Sora was in a similar situation, flanked by two groups of Shadows. He jumped down and, taking a step backwards, bumped into Vayn. Both key-wielding teens spun around, poised to attack.

"Oh, Sora, it's just you."

"Oh, hey Vayn!"

Both then took notice of the other's blades and simultaneously pointed at them. Also concurrently, they saw Shadows advancing from behind the other. _"Watch_ _out!"_ They warned at the same time. Vayn advanced and sliced upwards while Sora stepped forwards and sliced down, both of the Shadows fading away into mist.

Sora and Vayn stood back to back, facing the group of Shadows that slowly formed before each of them. "So," Sora began, stabbing at a Shadow, "You got one too, eh?" Vayn swung to the right horizontally and then to the left diagonally. "Apparently," he answered.

"What's going on?" Sora asked, swinging wide and destroying three more Shadows.

"How the hell should I know?!" Vayn retorted, quickly spinning around, giving himself the momentum to slice through another Shadow that was in the air.

After about a minute of fighting off the army of darkness, both teens were exhausted, approaching the point of collapse. "There's too many," Vayn panted, "We have to find shelter, and soon."

"Let's try the secret place," Sora advised, pushing back against a pesky Shadow. The two did this, stumbling through the hellish army. Upon reaching the entrance of the 'secret place', they made an odd discovery. "Uh, Sora, since when was there a door here?" Vayn asked, pointing at the decorative door framed over the former cave. Sora was about to say something, but another offense by a Shadow cut him off.

"Never mind that, just open the door," Sora shouted, hitting one Shadow over the head. Vayn complied, forcing the double doors open. With a deep rumble, the door opened and the two ran inside, shutting it behind them. They sat there at the entrance, catching their breath, their hair and clothes drenched in rain water.

At length, Sora stood up and marched down the tunnel. "Where…are you going…Sora?" Vayn panted. "I'm gonna check out the cave. Y'know, just to make sure it's safe," he answered, in seeminly better shape then Vayn. "You do that," Vayn said back, staying where he was.

Sora was now in the main part of the cave and found a certain girl standing in front of the wooden door. "Kairi!"

At the sound of her name, Kairi turned around, zombie-like. "Sora…" she murmured monotonously. Sora raised his eyebrow as she extended her arm out to him.

_**FWOOSH** _

The door swung open suddenly, blasting the two with a cold gust of black wind. Sora crossed his arms in front of his face, trying his best to hold his ground. Kairi was forced forward and flew towards Sora, still with an expressionless face.

Sora saw her coming and opened his arms to catch her. _Here she comes_…, he thought actually anxious. Just as she began to enter his grasp, she disappeared into thin air.

"Wha-," Sora began, but was soon blasted back by the wind, which increased. "AAAHHHH!!"

* * *

"Aw geez, I'm soaked," Vayn complained to himself, shaking his black pants and vest. "AAAHHHH!!" Vayn heard down the tunnel. "Sora, you all right?" he asked, a bit nervously, but he got his answer soon as Sora suddenly rammed into him and pushed them both out of the cave and onto the sandy ground.

"Ah, ouch…What the hell was that about, Sora?!" Vayn shouted, pushing himself up, causing one dazed Sora to roll off of his back. Sora seemed like he was about to answer, but his words fell silent when they both felt a sudden jolt and then a floating sensation.

The little piece of land that they were on was split off the rest and was rising up towards the dark mass in the sky. "O-h…" Sora began, gawking at the approaching mass. "Crap…" Vayn finished, doing the same.

There was a loud, deep rumble, snapping the two teen's attention to a statuesque, black monster that slowly rose to a vertical position.

"No way…" whispered Sora, while Vayn whispered, "Oh my god…"

"_It's that thing from my dream!_" They both shouted at once. They quickly turned to one another. "_You've seen this thing before?_" They asked each other, simultaneously.

They got over this strange coincidence in time to roll out of the way of the monster's, which Vayn decided to dub 'Darkside', fist. "Yo, Sora," Vayn called from the other side of the fist, "As strange as this sounds, you remember how to kill this thing?"

"You know it!" Sora answered back. They exchanged a nod, and Sora charged at the Darkside's legs, spinning counter-clockwise and sliced its right leg. The Darkside howled and dropped onto its right knee. Vayn took his chance and ran up, jumping from the side of the arm and striking the forehead of the Darkside hard with the teeth of his new blade.

Sora and Vayn retreated back a safe distance from the Darkside's feet as it roared in pain. Even through its beady yellow eyes, the two could see that they had _really _pissed the monstrosity off now.

It slammed the patch of land with two fists, hard enough to knock both teens of balance. A space of darkness appeared below the fists, summoning several Shadows. "Aw, great, just what we _needed_." Vayn said this last part through gritted teeth as he guarded an attack from a Shadow. He pushed back hard, and spun a 360, hopping in the air half way, and slammed the blunt end of his key/sword onto the Shadow, killing it almost in an instant.

Across from him, Sora crushed another Shadow, and to the dismay of both of them, multiple more Shadows arose to replace the few that were destroyed. "This isn't gonna work," Vayn grumbled to himself. "Sora! We need to kill the big one first!"

Sora glanced at him quickly before turning his attention back onto the Darkside. "I know. Look out!"

Vayn returned his vision to the Darkside and barely managed to move to the right before its palm slammed the ground where he stood. Thinking quickly, Vayn forced his blade through the black palm of the Darkside, resulting in an outcry of the palm's owner.

"Sora," Vayn grunted, struggling to keep the blade lodged in the palm, "Now's your chance!"

Without wasting any time, Sora ran up the Darkside's arm, gripping his blade so that it was pointed opposite of the masked face of the Darkside. Sora jumped high into the air, higher then Vayn ever seen him jump before. "HEY UGLY!" Sora roared, "YOUR FACE IS OPEN!!"

Sora's blade mashed into the Darkside's face, creating a crushing sound that was audible even over the whooshing of air blowing violently around them. There was a shot pause as Sora dropped to the ground and back stepped next to Vayn, who had by now removed his blade from the palm of the Darkside.

The Darkside screeched, deafeningly, floating up into the black mass, now only 50 meter, approximately, from the patch of dry land Sora and Vayn stood on. Upon impact with the sphere, the Darkside dissolved into nothingness.

With one threat down, Sora and Vayn were faced with another, one they could not avoid: The dark sphere drawing closer to them.

They were so close now, the mass's suction was strong enough to pull them in. With difficulty, the two managed to grab onto the remains of the shack, hoping only to prolong the short time they had left. Sora grasp on the splinted wood began to give way. One hand slipped off, leaving Sora with but one more before…whatever fate awaited him on the other side.

"Sora!" Vayn shouted, barely able to be heard over the noise of destruction all around the two. "Don't you _dare_ let go!"

Sora couldn't respond, we were too focused on his fading grip. One by one, each of his fingers slipped off: first his pinky, then his ring finger, then…

Sora gasped as his hand was forcively removed from the wood. Reflexively, Vayn clasped his friends hand with his left, trying with all of his remaining strength and will to hold on to their only anchor to solid earth. "Come…on…COME ON!!"

Vayn could feel tears build up on the side of his face. Was this it? Losing his home, his family, then, just when his life felt like it was coming back to normalcy, his was to die like this? _Why_? Why him?

He didn't even feel it when his hand lost its grip. He felt numb, numb to everything. There was a faint rumble in his head from the dark mass, but that was it, the rest was silence.

His vision became blurry, the colors before his mixing together into various hues.

Then black.

* * *

**Holy moogles, it's a cliffhanger! Well, this is the longest chapter I've ever written, so I hope you've enjoyed it!**

**Please rate and comment. Oh but first, translations:**

**'Hikari' is Japanese for light. ****(Fitting for Sora, you think?)**

**'Aidane' is Japanese for kind, cheerful****. (I thought that this describes Kairi pretty well.)**

**'Akemi' is Japanese for '****B****eauty of Dawn' ****(With Riku being the Keyblader of the Dawn, this one felt right for him.)**

**Thanks for reading! The next chpater will be up sooner!**


	4. Rush

**Okay, so this is basically just a chapter that focuses on Vayn's past as he is remembering it during the 'transport', if you will, from Destiny Islands to Traverse Town. I meant to place this chapter before #4, but it sort of slipped my mind…oops.**

* * *

_What is this feeling—this rush? It's so weird—but calm…Wait, what about the storm? What happened? Where am I?_

Vayn tried in vain to unveil the lids of his eyes, but they wouldn't budge, whether it was from his own drowsiness of just the illusion that he had no control over himself.

A rushing feeling overcame his body, like he was speeding at an unreal velocity. Time felt neither slow nor fast, nor was he hot or cold—it was like he was in that void of darkness, the void he had seen in many nightmares, the void he had spent an unknown time in four years ago.

His head was spinning. Thoughts of the storm—of the whole night, actually—swam aimless around his mind, like the stormy waters of Destiny Islands he had witnessed first hand. And like stormy waters, he could not hold any of these thoughts in place and they waved around randomly.

_Four years ago…_

Running…running…that was all he felt like doing. He ran out of the hospital doors, ignoring the shouts of protest from its personnel. He ran down the streets of—what was the name?—'Destiny Islands', ignoring the confused stares of men, women, and children that he rushed by. He dodged through crowds, occasionally bumping into some people, but he still ran.

Tears were stinging his face, rushing down the side of his head, leaving a tiny trail of tear-drops behind him.

He stopped, out of breath, at the end of a wooden pier that overlooked a calm, twilit ocean. His legs gave way and he collapsed to his knees, his tears dropping into the waters below.

Vayn didn't want to make such a scene like that, but he couldn't help it, nor did he care. As soon as he left the hospital room he had awakened in, the entirety of the situation struck him, and thus caused him to break into a directionless run, fueled completely by sadness and unfocused anger.

Now that he was on the pier, no where to go, the anger was gone, leaving only sorrow.

His legs ached, and his shoulders shook between sobs. Now what? Everything he once had—his home, his friends, his family—they were all gone…He was alone…

"Hey, are you all right?"

Vayn jumped at the sudden question, finding that the spiky brunette, Sora, had approached him from behind. He then sighed miserably. "What do you think?" he asked, colder then he had meant to.

Sora's mouth opted for a response, but, seeing Vayn's depressed face, his words fell silent. The boy then turned, discovering his friends had finally caught up. He hailed them with a wave, and his best friend Riku joined him.

Behind Vayn, they began to discuss things among themselves, but Vayn was too wrapped up in his own deprived thoughts to pay any attention and instead stared at the lapping waves below.

Next to him, the red headed girl took a seat beside him, folding her hands over her white, flower emblazoned dress. For several minutes, the two were silent. "Y'know," the girl, Kairi, suddenly spoke up, catching Vayn's ear, "I can sort of relate with what you're feeling."

"How's that," Vayn said gruffly, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. Kairi swung her legs over the edge of the pier, to and fro, as she began, "One night, there was this meteor shower her on the islands. That was when Sora and Riku found me; kinda like how we found you."

"So, you lost your home, too?" Vayn asked with growing interest. Kairi simply nodded. "Yeah, but I can't really remember anything about it. I've always regretted that…"

Vayn, eyeing Kairi with newfound respect and amazement, stayed still and silent.

"But you know what?" Kairi continued, a warm smile appearing on her face. She motioned her hand behind her towards the group. "I found friends here. When I'm with them, I think 'maybe this is what my home was like'."

She placed a comforting hand on Vayn's shoulder. "Trust me. Friends are the best cure for loneliness."

Vayn let that settle in. At length, he wiped his dirtied forearm across his eyes and uttered, "Do you really think so?"

"I do."

Vayn stiffly rose to his feet, and Kairi guided him to the group. "Feelin' better?" the dirty blonde-haired boy, Tidus, asked when Vayn approached.

"Y-yeah," Vayn managed to speak. Deciding that a conversation would be a good idea, he continued with, "So, where can I get some new duds?" He pulled on the collar of his dark blue muscle shirt, ripped in some places, in emphasis.

His wrists were grabbed by Kairi and Selphie before he could react and he was, rather roughly, dragged along with them. "Follow us," they said at the same time.

Vayn glanced behind him, practically screaming '_Help Me_' at the guys. The four other boys smiled slyly. "Poor guy has no idea," Riku said smiling.

_3 years ago from present…_

Vayn, a black backpack slung over his shoulder, stared passively at the school building before him. "Destiny Island Jr. High School," he said to himself, reading off the large red letters that lined the front of the school.

Now wearing a white T-shirt with blue sleeves and grayish pants with a loose red belt around his waist (As advised by Kairi and Selphie), Vayn was somewhat ready for the first day of school on Destiny Islands.

"Yo Vayn!"

Vayn pivoted his head to the left slightly to see Sora and Riku behind him, approaching. Riku had a dark blue backpack slung over his shoulder, wearing his all-too-usual yellow shirt and blue shorts. Next to him, Sora had a yellow/red backpack with an imprecise smiling face, drawn on by marker, courtesy of Kairi.

"Ya ready for sixth grade," Sora almost shouted with enthusiasm, wrapping an arm around Vayn's head. Vayn hummed thoughtfully, still in the headlock. "Spending six hours indoors, with under-paid adult teachers, learning things that we will probably never use or forget by tomorrow."

Vayn cracked a wide, sarcastic smile. "What are we waiting for?"

Sora's smile widened and Riku nonchalant face became one of slight amusement. The trio entered the establishment.

_Same Day: Lunch Time…_

Vayn, surrounded by the usual group of six, slowly ate the meal that covered the tin tray provided for him. So far, the day had been rather boring.

"Well if it isn't the weaklings", came a disdainful voice from nearby.

_So much for that_, Vayn grumbled to himself. He glanced out of his right eye towards an older boy, probably thirteen, with weird looking blue hair that is sort of hard to describe (**No seriously, it is**), flanked by two not-too-tough looking kids.

"What do you want, Seymour?" Riku sneered. (**That's right, Seymour Guado from FFX!)**

Vayn didn't really know what was happening, but he could guess that the blue haired dude was some sort of bully at the school that Riku knew, being a year older then Vayn.

It was afterwards that Vayn learned that Seymour was basically the rich kid on the island, and as such, he treated everyone else like they were below him.

"You're sitting in our seats fools!" One of the weaker guys shouted, apparently trying to make himself seem tough, though falling miserably.

Vayn laughed as if he had just heard a stupid joke. Seymour gave him a questionable stare. "What is so amusing, may I ask?" he asked, in that snobbish accent that began to get on Vayn's nerves.

"You mean besides your ridiculous hair-do?" Vayn prodded with an annoyed edge. A visible vain popped up for an instant on the bully. "How dare you insult me you pathetic orphan?" Seymour demanded, forcing himself to remain his composure despite the new kid's shot.

Vayn's eyes went wide, then he lowered his head hiding his eyes. Slowly, he began to remove the food items from his tray.

"Hey! That's not right," Sora shouted, jumping to his feet as if to fight in Vayn's defense. The rest of the group followed suit, which brought all the eyes of the cafeteria on them; some kids even began to chant quietly, "Fight, fight, fight…"

Seymour scoffed. "Please, why should you fight for a pathetic kid who won't even defend himse--…"

The blue-haired boy didn't finish. A metal tray flew forward, nailing him at the base of the throat with enough force to knock him sputtering to the ground. Shock fell upon everyone, except for the thrower.

Vayn rose, stepped over the coughing form of Seymour, and pulled his face roughly closer by the collar of his shirt. "Listen up, bastard!" Vayn growled poisonously, "If you are concerned about your physical health, you will kindly: _Shut. The. Hell. Up_."

Seymour stared back at Vayn with a mixture of pain, fear, and anger. One of the other guys managed to push Vayn off of their leader, and the other helped Seymour to his feet.

"Y-You'll pay for this!" Seymour threatened in a high-pitched voice as he was lead away by his subordinates. He never did follow through with it though.

* * *

Vayn was walking out of the school building and towards home, head down, hands in his pockets. Sora and the others followed soon behind, and Sora was the first to speak. "Wait, Vayn…"

At that moment, Vayn busted out into loud, lighthearted laughter towards the clear blue sky. The group all stopped, staring at the laughing brunette in utter confusion. "Um, what is so funny," Kairi asked at length.

Vayn turned slightly, and said with a bright, but somewhat mischievous smile, "Did you see the look on that clown's face?" He relapsed into more laughter, holding a hand to his forehead.

The whole group sweat-dropped accordingly. "You have a _weird_ sense of humor, y'know that," Riku couldn't help but point out.

"Yeah, I know," Vayn replied, smiling broadly as he continued walking. The party of seven traveled down to the pier, and from there, it was a routine day.

* * *

After that, the memories of the recent days, yesterday and the following day in particular, bounced around in his head. All those signs, that dream…was this _meant_ to happen?

**Thud**

The little bit of consciousness Vayn had left drifted away when he felt himself land upon stone. The rushing sensation was gone. Now all he felt was sleep.

* * *

**How was that? Short, I know, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time on this. **

**Right now, I'm working on chapter 5, which I am hoping to get done soon!**

**See ya!**


	5. Keyblades

**Greetings, reader! Please enjoy this chapter of 'Among the Stars'. Please tell me what you think.**

**This one was a bit more difficult to write, but I personally like it.**

**I Do Not Own Kingdom Hearts**, **just Vayn.**

**Anyway, on to the story:**

* * *

Goofy, now dressed in a black, zip-up vest with a green turtle-neck and light green pants with a black belt, walked through the world gate of Traverse Town, gawking at the many bright lights around him. The bustle of this town, which was more accurately described as a city, was in sharp contrast to the peaceful quite of the castle. Against his back was a silver/green shield emblazoned with the king's seal. Next to him, Donald waddled with him, a black wand topped with blue and a brown, hat-like object at its tip strapped to his side. Goofy adjusted his large, green cap, as he looked up. 

"Huh?" he said to himself, as he saw one of the many stars above him flicker off and on. Donald, now sporting a blue cap and a blue vest, turned around, annoyed. "What is it?" he blurted. "Look," Goofy pointed at the star, "A star's goin' out!"

Donald gaped at the spectacle.

The star flickered faster, and then in a final flash it disappeared. "We'd better hurry," Donald said seriously. The four, including Pluto and Jiminy, traveled up the stairs, stopping in front of a large store, labeled '**Accessory Shop**'.

"This way," Donald commanded and walked to the right, towards another flight of stairs. Goofy looked the other way, towards the right, as he saw Pluto rush off into the dark ally way. "Hmm," he hummed thoughtfully, "Y'know Donald, I betcha that Pluto--…"

"Aw. What do you know, you big palooka?" the mage interrupted rudely, waving away Goofy's words.

Goofy put a hand to his head in thought. "What do I know?" he asked himself. He continued to muse over this as he followed after Donald.

* * *

_**Sniff, Sniff**_

_What's that?_

_**Sniff, Sniff**_

Sora felt something wet rub along his check. He groggily opened his eyes, and lazily stared at an orange-yellow dog panting in front of him. "What a dream…" he slurred, and closed his eyes, wanting to go back to sleep.

_**Thunk **_

Sora's eyes shot open as the dog pushed onto his chest, then pushed away. "This isn't a dream!" he realized. He rose to his feet, looking around at the brick walls that surrounded him, as well as the crates beside him. "Where am I?" he asked himself, still not fully conscious of his current situation.

Sora knelt down and said to the dog, "Do you know where we are?"

Pluto's ears went up as his acute hearing allowed him to hear a certain duck shout, "Pluto! Where'd you go?!"

The dog bounded away, leaving Sora alone, staring after the dog in confusion.

Sora walked out of the ally way, stumbling due to exhaustion, and emerged into the light of several bright neon signs. His eyes adjusted, and he looked around, finding that he was now in a large city, with streetlamps lining the roads and many stores around him.

"I'm in another world!"

* * *

_Am I alive? My heart's beating…guess I am. What happened?_

Vayn slowly struggled his way to his knees, finding that he was totally sapped of his strength. _Where am I,_ he thought, raising his head. In front of his was three pillars, and beyond them, he could see faint lights. Also, there was a fountain on the other side of what appeared to be the district he was now in with two streams of water squirting up from it, crossing each other half way through its journey. Wait, district? Was he in a city?

Suddenly finding some strength, Vayn jumped to his feet. Indeed, he was in a city, more like a metropolis, with many houses and stores everywhere. "How'd I get here?!" Vayn shouted to himself, looking around frantically. His eyes came to rest on the key-shaped blade that had came to him during the storm on the islands, lying next to where he had previously been lying.

In that instant, Vayn recalled everything: The storm, the Shadows, the blade, and the fight with the Darkside, everything. Vayn collapsed to his knees, again feeling tears well up in his eyes. He began to repeatedly pound the stone floor he was on with balled up fists, continually mumbling to himself, "Again…again…AGAIN?!"

Vayn ceased pounding and just stayed there, palms flat on the floor, knuckles bruised and slightly bloody. "I lost the only home I had left…I lost my friends…I've lost…Everything…" he whispered to himself," tears now running freely down his face, dripping onto the stone below him.

He could hear the faint noise of a Shadow emerge in front of him, and he looked up to see that this was so; a single Shadow, twitching before him, ready to attack. "And it's all…YOUR FAULT!!" Vayn bellowed, dashing forward, grabbing his key/sword and crazily slashed the Shadow to pieces. Right then, his senses were on fire and his body moved involuntarily.

With the creature disposed of, Vayn stood there, shakily gripping the blade, panting uneasily. His senses finally came back to him, his body his own again. He felt like breaking down again, but stopped himself by slapping his face firmly. _No. Now's not the time_ _for that_, he told himself, _I have to find Sora. If I made it, he did too. _

Vayn's hands reached up to his chest, feeling his heart beating loudly. His hand touched a metal object. He quizzically gripped the object that wrapped around his neck. It was the crescent moon pendant that was given to him by Riku and Kairi the day before. _The necklace…I almost forgot about it._

He held it tighter. _I promise: I will find you guys…no matter what…_

With this resolve burned into his mind, Vayn slowly walked to the left edge of the floor he was on. Apparently, he was on a roof of a building, as the next floor below him was about a ten foot drop. Farther down, where the building met the wall of the district, there was a ladder, an old, rusty looking one.

"Please don't break, please don't break…" Vayn pleaded out loud, gingerly climbing down the ladder. Unfortunately, his prayers were denied, as halfway through, the ladder shook, then snapped, leaving Vayn to drop five feet to the ground, landing flat on his ass.

"Arg, Son of a…" Vayn cursed to himself, rubbing his butt, "I think I broke something…" He rose to his feet, brushing off his black cargo pants

Vayn jumped the rest of the way down, landing (ungracefully) on the ground. Without any idea where to go, he began to head towards the fountain he saw earlier.

Just as he turned the corner that lead towards the fountain, a pair of two walking animals, a duck and a dog, entered a hotel, the door shutting before Vayn had a chance to see them.

Vayn walked up to the fountain, still holding the key-shaped blade in his right hand. There was a nagging voice in the back of his head telling him to call the blade a 'Keyblade', but he mostly ignored it.

The fountain was encircled by concrete and had a stone temple like structure behind it. A mural of a group of butterflies was in the center of the structure. He looked to the right of it and saw a small wooden door underneath the stone walkway above. Thinking he might as well check it out, he crossed the threshold of the door.

As soon as the door closed behind him, the larger wooden double doors open above the fountain opened up, and a certain brown-haired boy crossed through.

* * *

_So, this must be the second district of Traverse Town_, Sora surmised mentally. He had just spoken to Cid Highwind, a tough-looking man and store owner of the '**Accessory Shop**', who had told him that he was now on the world of Traverse Town, where many people who had lost their worlds end up. 

Sora walked forward, but stopped when he saw a man run by. The man stumbled and fell, looking behind him in pure fear. A Shadow suddenly appeared and shoved its claw into the man's chest, extracting a shimmering heart. The man faded away, and in his place, a new kind of creature appeared. This one had a clunky metal helmet, large gauntlets, and iron boots that were pointed sharply at the end.

Sora ran towards the creature, sword at the ready, but the creature disappeared in a flash of darkness. In its place, several Shadows emerged from the floor. "It's those things from the islands!" Sora exclaimed, reading his blade.

Sora knocked one Shadow right out of the air with the blunt edge of his blade, crashing it and another Shadow into the stone wall, subtracting two creatures from the fight.

Sora then hit a third Shadow over the head, again with the blunt end, and followed this up with a clock-wise spin attack, killing it and two other Shadows that happened to have approached.

Panting, Sora looked around the empty district, hoping to spot his friends near by. Instead, he spotted more Shadows on the approach. Thinking that he didn't stand a chance out here alone, he ran for the nearest door, which happened to be a hotel door.

Just as he entered, two animals walked out of the hotel door that was on the far end of the district, one duck and one dog. "Where _is_ he?!" The duck shouted as the dog called out, "Mister Leon!"

* * *

Donald pivoted his head towards a large building marked 'Workshop'. "Let's try this one," Donald said, not even waiting for a reply from Goofy before entering through the threshold. Goofy, sighing, followed behind.

* * *

Vayn exited through a fancy white door, entering the same district he began in, covered in dog fur and slobber. It seemed that he had been pounced on by at least a hundred dogs—literally. "Who the hell keeps 100 Dalmatians in their house?" he asked himself as he shook of the dog hair and spit. "Actually, it felt more like a 101…" 

Turning down another ally, he then tried another door, a large wooden one, which had the number '**3**' etched above it in neon.

* * *

Sora exited the hotel on the far end, running. Behind him were Shadows and creatures with metal helmets that clucked about as they ran, their gauntlets swinging wildly with them. "Ahhhhh!!" he screamed, sprinting madly towards the large wooden doors that lead to the first district, which is where he had ended up in the first place. He bursted through the double doors, frantically shutting them afterwards. He heaved a sigh of relief, then turned around. More Shadows appeared, surrounding him. "Oh boy..." he muttered.

* * *

Vayn was in the center of the district, which he guessed was the third district due to the neon '**3'** above the door. Looking around, he saw a far off door, without a handle, marked with runes and a flame on the center. On the other end was another door, large like the other two doors he had seen, flaked by two stone walls, one of which had a map. He strode up to the map, looking it over. 

"Hmm….according to this, this city is called 'Traverse Town', and I'm in the third district. Through this door is the first district," he observed aloud. He looked at the door, finding that it was locked tight by a pad lock and various chains that wrapped around the pad lock and the door handles.

Trying in vain to remove the lock manually (He thought it might be an old, crappy one) he mumbled, "Stupid lock…"

He looked down at his key- fashioned sword, then at the padlock, and grinned. He straightened himself up, and said, in a deep voice, as he pointed his sword at the lock "By my shiny key/sword, I commandeth thou door to openeth to me."

Vayn laughed inwardly at this, thinking, _Yeah, like that will ever happen…_

This thought was soon contradicted. Vayn jumped when a dark blue beam erupted from the tip of his sword and struck the lock directly in the keyhole, causing the lock to pop off, chains and all. The door slowly swung ajar.

"Holy Paopu-Fruits!" Vayn shouted in complete shock, gawking at the door, then at his sword, then at the door again.

Several Shadows appeared, as well as two other creatures he had never seen before. Theses creatures wore a metal helmet that opened to reveal yellow eyes and sharp gauntlets with red fingers and equally sharp red metal boots. An insignia of a heart, outlined in red and filled in with black, that was split into four by lines that went diagonally across the Heart, was imprinted on its chest.

Vayn growled at the armada before him. "You picked the _wrong_ day to mess with me!!" he yelled, charging, jumping, then slicing through a Shadow diagonally. He struck another Shadow to the ground with the blunt edge of his sword and stabbed it as it laid there.

He narrowly stepped away to avoid a stab from the armored creature, which he decided to call a 'Solider', and smashed his blade into its helmet. The Solider stumbled back, but quickly rebounded and spun crazily in the air, slicing Vayn's arm as it passed. Vayn winced and hissed in pain, gripping his bleeding arm. "Argh, tougher bastards…" he growled.

In his tired condition, Vayn decided, it wasn't a wise idea to keep fighting, no matter how badly he want to. Vayn broke into a reluctant run, dashing through the door, and shut it before the creatures could follow through.

Vayn panted his way up the stair way that led to a large building marked '**Accessory Shop**', still clutching his wounded arm, ignoring the stares he was getting from passing citizens. He forced the door open with his one good hand, the one with his sword.

"G'morn—Oh wait, it's just another kid," mumbled a man with blond hair behind a glass counter, a cigarette lit in his mouth. "The name's Vayn," Vayn said, in response to the comment "You got a first-aid kit here, old man?"

"First of all," the man began, "Don't call me 'old man'. Name's Cid Highwind. Anyway, yeah, I got a first-aid; just hold up a sec."

As Cid reached below the counter and retrieved a kit, he asked, "What happened to you?"

"Nothin'," Vayn replied brusquely, "Just slipped." As the teen applied the gauze and wrapped a bandage around it, using his teeth to tighten it, Cid closely regarded the key/sword in Vayn's hand.

_There's no way that it could be the real thing_, Cid though, his lips tightly clasped on the cigarette in his mouth, _I mean, he's just a kid._

"Y'know, you're the second kid I've seen with that kind of key-toy-thing." Cid said.

Vayn froze. _Second…_, he thought. "The first one—What did the fist kid look like!" Vayn blurted out quickly.

"Whoa-whoa, easy kid," Cid said, motioning his hands for him to quiet down. "Well, let's see…He had spiky brown hair—and I mean really spiky—and blue eyes-…"

"That's him! That's Sora!" Vayn shouted all together forgetting about his arm, "He _is_ alive!"

With his arm bandaged, Vayn rushed out the store. "Thanks old—I mean Cid!"

"Uh…you're welcome?" Cid said to the now empty store room, crossing his arms over his chest, scowling, "Crazy kids…"

* * *

Sora walked towards the front doors to the Accessory shop, hoping to rest a bit and get some more information from Cid, but just as his hand reached for the handle of the door, a voice called out to him, freezing him in his tracks. 

"They won't stop coming for you, those creatures," the voice said coolly, "As long as you wield that Keyblade."

Sora turned quickly, his grip tightening on his blade. The voice came from a tall young man with medium length brown hair and blue eyes, dressed in a black leather jacket with a red symbol that looked like a lion head mixed with a cross on one arm, a white shirt underneath, black leather pants tied on with a series of red and black belts (Most of which were unnecessary), and a silver necklace with the same symbol on the end as the one that was stitched into his jacket sleeve. His shoes were light black, and he had a scar that ran down from his forehead to his nose, from above the right eye to the left cheek, diagonally.

The man held a large silver blade with a black handle connected to a revolver and a trigger of a gun, giving the appearance that the barrel was the blade itself. He slung it over his shoulder, nonchalantly.

The man held his left hand to his temple as he asked himself, "But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?"

Feeling that that was his cue to interrupt, Sora retorted, "Hey, what's that suppose to mean?"

The man removed his hand from his brow and glared at Sora for a moment, saying "Never mind," before his eyes drifted down to Sora's silver blade.

"Now," he continued, taking a step forward and extending his left hand towards Sora's blade, "Let's see that Keyblade."

Sora jumped back, gripping his sword tighter. "There's no way you're getting this!" he shouted at the man.

The man's eyes widen just a bit, and then relaxed. He sighed quietly, before saying, "All right. Have it your way."

He dropped his blade/gun/thing from his shoulder and effortlessly swayed it into an unthreatened fighting stance.

By now, the surrounding townsfolk had retreated into their homes, not wanting to be in the fray—or in the middle of the gun fire, as most of them were aware.

Sora gulped. The man jumped forwards, covering the distance between them, and slashed down on to Sora, as if he wasn't even trying. Sora managed to guard the attack, but was almost forced to the ground in the process. He audibly grunted, struggling to push the sword wielding man away.

"Is this all you've got?" the man asked, with almost no emotion, besides disappointment. Finally, Sora forced the man back. The man stuffed one hand into his pocket, determining that he would only need one for this fight.

Sora took to the offensive, jumping up high and heavily swinging straight down onto the scarred man. Said man simply side stepped avoiding the otherwise threatening movement. Sora quickly slashed up at the man, who easily jumped back, landing on the stone wall behind him.

Sora joined him, swing rapidly left and right. At about the fifth attack, the man was forced to use his other hand, and held his blade perpendicular with Sora's and blocked a vertical slash. The man simply scoffed, somewhat impressed with the boy now, and hopped down onto the street to his right, leaving Sora to nearly stumble off the wall.

The man hoisted up his blade, pointing the tip at Sora like one would point a gun at a target; this scenario was true in this case.

_**Bang**_

Sora dove off the wall, away from the man, just in time for a fire-like projectile to fly over him and crash into a barrel, exploding on impact. Sora gawked at the remains of the barrel and, still with a wide opened mouth, peeked over the wall at the man, whose blade was smoking at the end. The man smiled ever so slightly, amused by the surprised look on the boy's face.

Headstrong, Sora persisted to fight, charging from down the steps, stepping from side to side to dodge the 'bullets' from the man's blade. When Sora was finally close enough, he spun in a wide arc, a full 360 degrees, swinging a powerful spinning attack.

The man jumped, then flipped and spun, landing several feet behind Sora, facing him. He lunged forward, swinging down onto Sora, who still had his back towards the man. Sora rolled away from the attack, and countered with a move the other didn't expect.

Sora ran towards the man, and then went down low into a fast slide, right into the man's shin. The man stumbled and went down onto one knee, unable to stand from the blow to the leg.

Sora stood up, now in front of the steps to the '**Accessory Shop**' and faced the man, panting and wheezing for breath. "Now—y-you're gonna—you're gon—ah…,"Sora rasped before he fell back, fainted.

The man managed to stand, putting all his weight on the other leg. "Well, I guess that's that," he said to himself, limping forward.

* * *

Vayn exited the store in a run. As soon as he did, he quickly sighted a downed Sora and a strange man with a peculiar blade limping toward him. Out of instinct, Vayn ran and jumped clear from the steps to Sora's unconscious body. He stepped quickly between Sora and the man. 

"Take _one_ more step," Vayn roared, threateningly, "and I _swear_, it'll be the last thing you'll ever-…"

_**Thunk**_

Vayn fell flat on his face, out cold before he even touched the ground.

Behind him, a raven haired woman, who couldn't have been older than 16, stood, her hands on her hips. Her hair was only down to her neck and she was dressed in a green shirt that only went around her chest, fastened by thick blue straps that went around her shoulders, short white shorts, loosely tied by a blue belt, orange gloves that went about half-way up her arm, and white stockings that went all the way past her knees. She had hard brown shoes tied on her feet and a yellow scarf tied around her neck, though it wasn't exactly needed in the warm weather.

She had knocked Vayn out cold with a strong, swift chop to the neck before he could finish his threat.

"Aw, looks like you're slipping, Leon," she chimed, smiling broadly and stared at the tired gunblader with cheerful, violet eyes.

The man, apparently named 'Leon', stood at his full height after using a quick 'Cure' spell to heal his leg and quickly muttered, "I went easy on him."

"Yeah, yeah," the lively teen said sarcastically.

Leon switched his gaze from the one unconscious, key/sword bearing teen to the other as he remarked, "Looks like things are worse then we thought; a lot worse."

The girl looked at the two younger teens sympathetically from behind Leon. "Poor guys, they look so young," she empathized. Leon bent over and slung Sora over his shoulder, not finding the extra weight difficult to walk with. "Can't be helped," he said plainly. As he strode away towards the hotel in the next district, he told the girl, "Yuffie, you take the other one."

The girl, 'Yuffie' as the man called her, complied and began to pick Vayn's limp body up from the ground, but found a tough time in doing so. "No fair," she huffed, "This one's heavier then your's!"

Eventually, Yuffie followed Leon, carrying Vayn piggy back style. "Aerith should be with our other guests by now," Leon said suddenly as they neared the hotel room that was prepared for them.

* * *

"Gwarsh, nobody's here. Sure is spooky…" Goofy walked closely beside Donald, darting his head left to right as he looked around the empty water way. "Aw phooey," Donald grunted, arms crossed, "I'm not scared." 

There was a sudden tap on his shoulder and Donald launched skyward, squawking in fear, and landed on top of Goofy. The two collapsed to the ground, as the owner of the hand that tapped Donald chuckled. "I'm sorry, did the king send you?" The voice asked, lightly giggling.

Donald and Goofy looked from their downed positions and found that the owner of the voice was a young woman dressed in a long, pink dress and brown hiking boots. Her hair long brown hair was tied in a pony tail with a large pink ribbon, openly showing her vivid green eyes.

* * *

"Come on you lazy bum. Wake up!" 

Sora slowly came to, heaving himself onto one elbow and holding his head steady with his hand. He finally shook his head clear, and turned his head to see none other then Kairi standing next to the medium-sized green bed he was on.

"You okay?" she asked. Sora blinked trying to make sure that what he was seeing was real. "I…guess," he said, stunned. He grinned widely. "I'm so glad you're okay Kairi."

'Kairi' blinked, confused. "Who's Kairi?" she asked, "_I_ am the _great_ ninja, Yuffie Kisaragi!"

Sora blinked and rubbed his eyes, and when he opened his eyes again, a young, raven-haired woman took the place of Kairi.

"I think you may have overdone it Squall," she called behind her, towards a man that was leaned against the doorframe, arms folded over his chest. Next to him was the door that led to the adjacent room. "That's _Leon_," he said gruffly, narrowing his eyes at the 'great ninja'. "And you shouldn't be talking, Yuffie," Leon added, pointing to Vayn, who was just now coming around.

"Ughh…What the hell happened?" Vayn slurred, hoisting himself up on his left hand and rubbing his throbbing head with his right. "Well, it's about time you woke up!" announced Yuffie, arms crossed over her chest.

Vayn's eyes shot open and locked onto her. "Who're you," he quickly demanded. His grip tightened around—_Wait, where's my sword? _Vayn thought, finding his grip empty.

"Vayn!"

"Not now, Sora," Vayn replied to the teen next to him. As soon as the words left his mouth, Vayn froze. He turned his head slowly, finally noticing Sora sitting right next to him.

There was a short, awkward silence as the two teens blinked at one another.

"Sora!" Vayn tackled Vayn, childishly getting him into a headlock and rubbing his fist into his spiky hair. "(Owieowieowie) it's nice to see you too, Vayn," Sora said happily, "Now can you let go?!"

"Ahem."

Vayn and Sora looked back to see Yuffie and Leon eyeing the two of them, perplexed. "What are you two lookin' at?" Vayn asked innocently, still keeping an indisposed Sora in his grasp. Letting go of the boy, he added, "More importantly, who are you two and why did you…" he paused to look around the green-walled room they were in, "…kidnap us?"

The room was small, apparently a hotel room, consisting of a single dresser against the right wall, a table and two chairs in the center of the room, and various paintings and pictures along the wall. Against one of the walls leaned the two teen's key/swords.

"Hey that's-…" Vayn started abruptly, pointing at the pair of weapons. "The Keyblade…" Sora finished quietly, overlooking his silver blade.

Vayn's finger went limp as he turned towards his friend. "Um…your what-now?"

Yuffie about-faced and walked towards the far wall. "Yeah, we had to get those Keyblades away from you to shake off those bastards," she explained, spinning around again. "Turns out, that's just how they were tracking you."

"Tracking us?" Vayn repeated, completely lost. Leon nodded. "Separating you from your Keyblades was the only way to conceal your heart from them. But it won't work for long."

He sighed and shook his head disapprovingly. "Still, it's hard to believe that you two, of all people, were chosen." He gripped Sora's blade, or 'Keyblade', and swung it to his side. It disappeared in a radiant flash, leaving Leon's grip.

"Hey, where'd it--…" Sora didn't finish his question, because, in a flash of light, his Keyblade materialized in his right hand.

"Whoa…" Sora gawked.

"Wow. That. Is. _Awsome_!" Vayn stated slowly. "I wonder if I…"

Vayn slowly raised his palm in front of him, and focused. "Come on…Keyblade…"

_**Fwish**_

The black and white blade flashed into Vayn's grip in a dreary, gray light. Vayn's eyes quickly opened and settled on his blade that had appeared in his grasp. "Well all right!" Vayn exclaimed, jumping off of the bed and swinging his blade to the side, confirming that it was real.

Leon shook his head again, holding his hand to his temple. "I guess beggars can't be choosers," he uttered.

Sora narrowed his eyes at the scarred man. "Why don't you start making sense," Sora asked rigorously, "What's goin' on here?"

* * *

In the adjacent room, the woman in pink, Aerith, was explaining the situation to the mage and captain. Unbeknownst to the two, the 'key' (Or in this case, 'keys') that they were searching for was just next door. "Okay," Aerith started, sitting on the bed with her hands folded on her pink dress, "You are aware of the presence of other worlds, besides this town and your castle, right?" 

Donald nodded, while Goofy covered his muzzle his white gloved hands. "But they're suppose ta be a secret," he whispered to Aerith. Donald slapped a hand to his head. "They've _bee_n secret," continued Aerith kindly, "because they used to be disconnected from one another." She lowered her head sadly, "But when the Heartless came, everything changed."

* * *

Vayn crossed his arms over his chest, and frowned. "Those Heartless…What the hell are they anyway?" 

Leon, hands buried in his pockets, sighed. "To put it simply: Those without hearts."

"They're attracted by the darkness in peoples' hearts," Yuffie added, taking a seat next to Sora. "And there is darkness within every heart," Leon continued.

"They hunt others, stealing their hearts for themselves, while at the same time making more Heartless." Vayn drifted his eyes to the corner of their sockets. He was all too aware of this already.

"Hey," Yuffie piped up suddenly, stealing Sora and Vayn's attention, "Have you two every heard of a guy named Ansem?"

* * *

"Ansem?" Goofy repeated. Aerith nodded. "He was studying the Heartless," she clarified, "He recorded all of his findings in a highly detailed report." 

"Gwarsh, can we see it?" Goofy asked. Aerith shook her head slowly. "Unfortunately, its pages were scattered to many different worlds."

"Scattered?!" Donald repeated. "Oh, maybe the king went to find 'em," Goofy theorized. "That's exactly what I thought," Aerith said.

Goofy looked down at Donald as he told him, "We've gotta find him quick!"

Goofy started towards the exited, but Donald grabbed his arm before he could get any farther. "Wait a second," he shouted, dragging him roughly back to his previous position, "First we need that key!"

"Ah yes, the Keyblade," Aerith said, referring to the mystical blade with reverence.

* * *

"So, this is the 'key'?" Sora asked innocently, holding his silver blade up to the light. "We have a winner!" Yuffie exclaimed with false excitement. Sora glared at her, actually catching the sarcasm interestingly enough. Ignoring the 'great ninja's' comment, Leon remarked, "The Heartless have great fear of the Keyblade, which is why they will continue to attack you, no matter what." 

"Well, I didn't ask for this," Sora said to his defense. Vayn stayed silent, overlooking his Keyblade with newfound interest. "Unfortunately for the both of us," Leon scoffed, "the Keyblade chooses its master."

"And it chose you two," Yuffie said, poking Sora and Vayn on the forehead simultaneously. "So, tough luck," Leon finished, waving his hand over his head as he leaned back against the green wall.

"How did all this happen?" Sora thought out loud, head lowered. "I remember being in my room…" It was then that the seriousness of the situation hit Sora. "Wait a minute!" he gasped, shooting up from the bed, "What happened to my home, my island!" His voice became quiet, "Riku…Kairi…"

"You know what, I really don't know," Leon answered coldly.

Sora bowed his head down, and Vayn walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. The two friends didn't have to say anything to one another to come to the same conclusion: Destiny Islands was no more.

Leon glanced over to Sora and Vayn, recognizing the sad looks on their faces. He had seen the same look on so many other faces in this town many times before, and the same look on his face many years ago. The sense of loss, the pain…he remembered it.

Yuffie slugged Leon's arm, snapping him out of his reflection. "Ow, What?" he asked, rubbing his arm for a brief moment. "Can't you at least try to show some compassion?" Yuffie whispered to him fervently. "I swear, Leon, you can be pretty heartless sometimes,"

Leon was quiet for a moment, but when he opened his mouth to speak, there was a quick flash of black. A Soldier had appeared in the hotel room, and the first thing it sought was the pair of Keyblade wielders.

"Yuffie, GO!" Leon ordered, drawing his gunblade.

Yuffie quickly complied, busting through the door to the next room. "Aerith, it's time to go!" she said to the pink-claded women. Both exited the room, via a window Yuffie decided to bust.

"Sora, Vayn, let's go," Leon commanded coolly. Both teens nodded, readying their blades.

_**Crash**_

Leon countered the Soldier's first move, sending the armor-wearing monster through the window and ten feet down to the ground. Leon hopped over the railing, and stabbed his sword through the Solider, resulting in the dissipation of the monstrosity.

Vayn and Sora followed suit, jumping from the railing to the floor below, as the door, the one Yuffie barreled through, was peeled away by a certain captain, revealing a squashed mage against the wall.

Leon went off, slaying Heartless left and right. He joined Yuffie, catching a giant ninja star from its successful journey of slicing through Heartless, and woman in a dress, protecting her allies with barriers she called up, and the three of them ran off. "We'll protect the townsfolk," Leon shouted behind him, "You find the leader of these Heartless and take care of it!"

"But-," Vayn began. Too late; the three elder fighters were gone. "Great," Vayn muttered, definitely not pleased, "We're on a completely different world, we've got demons without hearts chasing us, we're stuck with magic blades that have a mind of their own, and to top it all off, we now have to search for a Heartless 'leader'. Can today get _any_ better?!"

Several Shadows and Soldiers appeared around the two teens. Vayn gawked in his disbelief of his own luck. "You just had to ask, huh?" Sora asked, entering his fighting stance. Vayn got behind him, getting into his own fighting stance and focusing on the enemies that were behind them. "…Shut up…" Vayn groaned.

Sora side stepped a Soldier's claw, returning with a high sweep, knocking the armored Heartless up. He followed up with two consecutive mid air attacks and finished it off with a wide spin.

Vayn ducked beneath another Soldier's claws, upper cutting it with his bare hands, and, with the Heartless dizzied, Vayn charged forward and swung his Keyblade up against the Soldier's neck, killing it fast.

Both teens quickly dealt with the Shadows, watching each other's backs, but another wave of Heartless simply replaced them.

"Well, this sucks," Sora mumbled. "This way!" Vayn shouted, shoulder-thrusting his way through the door leading to the first district.

Vayn bumped into a wall of metal as soon as he crossed the threshold. Vayn shook his head and looked up; Sora did the same when he joined up.

A large, fat-bodied creature in armor that covered the front side of his body, and a sliver helmet on a head that seemed _way_ too small for its body was standing in front of them. "Oh Come ON!" Vayn moaned, rolling to the left as the 'Large Body' awkwardly let loose a punch.

It turned its attention towards Vayn, who wasted no time in charging forward. "HUYAA," he roared, heavily swinging his Keyblade down onto the Heartless's belly.

_**Clunck**_

Vibrations shook from the Keyblade, up Vayn's arm and all through his body, making him shake away from the Heartless. "T-t-t-tha-t-t-t's h-h-h-hard-d-d-d," Vayn managed to stutter in between vibrations.

Sora leapt high in the air and struck the Large Body hard on its tiny skull. It instantly collapsed, stunned, and Sora finished it with a quick, three-hit combo.

Vayn's body finally ceased shaking. "Well, now that that's over," he started, shaking the tingling feeling out of his right arm, "Let's go--."

Sora raised his hand up for silence. "How 'bout I choose," Sora said briskly. He looked around, put his finger under his chin in thought, and quickly came to a decision. "Follow me!" he said proudly.

He marched for the third district, which actually seemed like a good plan to Vayn, but nevertheless, he sighed and reluctantly followed his spiky haired friend.

* * *

"So, uh, why are we up here?" Goofy asked, confounded. Goofy and his mage friend were up on top of a balcony in the third district, over looking the plaza there. 

"If we're up here, we can easily spot that key," Donald answered, leaning far over the ledge of the balcony. "Gotcha!" Goofy replied, leaning over the ledge, just as two boys walked underneath them. Two Soldiers appeared, flanking Donald and Goofy. "Gwarsh, are these them Heartless guys?"

Donald whipped out his wand, and shouted, "LET'S GET 'EM!"

_5 Seconds Later_

A 'Thunder' spell mishap found Donald and Goofy flying off the balcony and falling to the plaza below.

* * *

Vayn, arms crossed behind his head, looked around the empty plaza of the third district. "I have a feeling that the Heartless leader ain't here, Spiky," he said. 

Sora wheeled around and rose his finger up, about to yell a come back, but froze when his gaze drifted up.

"WWAAAHH!!"

"YA-HOOOOHOOOHOYYYY!!"

Vayn, catching these pair of shrieks, spun around and saw two falling persons incoming.

"Oh-h no," Sora gasped and started to run away from ground zero, as did Vayn. Too slow…

_**Ka-thump**_

The pair of falling persons fell atop Sora and Vayn, and as it turned out, the persons were one fully clothed dog and one clothed duck, minus the pants.

The duck was on top of Sora and the other was smothering Vayn.

Donald's head was spinning, as was Goofy's, but the first thing they saw was a key-shaped sword.

"Oh, the key!" they exclaimed. They were equally surprised to find that there was another key in front of the other.

"Um, Sora," Vayn stammered, "is it just me, or did we just get jumped on by talking animals?"

Just then, a deep rumbling echoed in the district, and pillars of stone rose from the ground. The party jumped to there feet, standing back to back as an armada of Soldiers surrounded them.

"Yippee, more of you," Vayn cheered unenthusiastically. He quickly charged at the Solider in front of him, bellowing, "BRING IT!!"

He stabbed and knocked the Heartless senseless with the blunt edge of his Keyblade, following up with a spin that sliced the Soldier in half with the sharp end.

Sora finished off his Soldier soon after. The dog pushed a Soldier into the small fountain that was constructed in the corner, and the duck chanted, "_Thunder!_"

A bolt of lighting zapped the Heartless out of existence.

"Holy—A duck that can shoot lightning?!" Vayn gasped. He snapped out of his amazement in time to block a Soldier's boot from kicking him in the face.

_30 seconds later..._

The party of four stood in the plaza, tired but safe…for the moment.

"HA!" Cheered Sora. Vayn opened his arms wide, shouting, "That's it?!"

A pile of armor clattered into a pile in front of him, suddenly joining to form a body of armor, made of only two steel hands, two metallic feet, a metal torso, and a closed helmet, all connected by an unseen force.

Sora stared at Vayn with a tired look. "Don't say it," Vayn grumbled, readying his Keyblade.

The abomination, nicknamed 'Guard Armor' by Vayn, swept its limbless metal hands across the floor. Sora and Vayn blocked the attack, but were still forced back several feet, as was the dog. The duck had retreated back, returning with a strong fire ball to the helmet of the Guard Armor.

The Guard Armor stumbled back, giving Vayn the opening to attack its torso. He leapt and spun, slashing it with the rotation, leaving a wide cut in the armor. He crouched low, letting Sora hop onto his shoulders and, using Vayn as a spring board, leapt up high, landing a solid blow on the helmet, denting it heavily.

"Nice!" Vayn shouted as Sora landed, but the cheer was short lived. Pissed, the Heartless grabbed Vayn up, making him let go of the Keyblade.

He was pulled up to the helmet of the Guard Armor. "GET YOUR HANDS OFFA ME!!" Vayn roared, summoning his Keyblade from within the Guard Armor's grip. The hand snapped open, and as Vayn fell to the ground, he saw it begin to crack, and then it collapsed into rubble.

Vayn hit the floor, gasping for breath. His ribs were cracked from the tight grip of the Heartless. "_Cure_," the duck squawked, and afterwards, Vayn's body was surrounded by a green aura for a moment and when it was gone, he felt as good as new.

"Uh, thanks?" Vayn guessed, not really sure what had just happened. The wand-wielding duck nodded, saying, "Don't mention it," and then pattered it way back into the fray.

"Back Off!" Sora shouted, smacking an armored hand into the stone earth. It laid there, seemingly stunned itself. Sora thrusted his Keyblade into the hand, and got the same result as Vayn. With the second hand reduced to metallic ash, Sora turned his attention to the torso of the monster.

As Sora turned, he saw a foot hovering overhead, ready to stomp him like an ant. Sora braced himself for the crush, but it never came. "Look out!" the dog barked, coming between the boy and the boot and stopping the stomp with his shield. "Thanks," Sora managed to gasp. The dog smiled in response, and the two jumped back when the giant foot let up. "_Fire_!"

A blast of flame exploded on the foot, courtesy of the duck, giving Vayn the chance to leap through the smoke and slice the foot, destroying the foot and creating more metal ash.

The last foot stomped its way at Vayn, but was intercepted by a strong tackle from the dog's shield. The foot became unbalanced, letting Sora jump and stab it. More ash was made which left the torso and head of the Heartless.

The four lined up, preparing for their last offense. The human-like dog went first, charging vigorously at the Guard Armor and heavily attacked it with his shield, surprisingly making the now hand-less and foot-less monster stumble back. This was followed up by the duck raising his wand and calling down a powerful lighting bolt, striking the Guard Armor over the helmet. The bolt caused the Heartless's body to go rigid, seemingly paralyzed.

Sora and Vayn, giving each other silent nods, ran forward. Vayn jumped first, coming down at the Guard Armor, and Sora waited to get right up to it before sweeping his Keyblade up.

There was an audible slicing noise. Sora and Vayn were on the other side of the Guard Armor in, Vayn's Keyblade crossed over his body, Sora's risen over his head.

Time caught up, and the Guard Armor fell apart. Its helmet fell to the ground and out of the hole of its torso, meant for its neck if it had one, a large, radiant heart floated to the sky, disappearing soon afterwards. The empty armor also faded away, in a bluish light.

Sora and Vayn eased back out of their stances, and turned towards each other. Sora wore his goofy, innocent smile, which brought one onto Vayn's face.

* * *

"So, you were looking for us?" Sora asked the dog and duck, once the two explained to him that they were sent to look for a boy with a 'key'. Vayn was still uneasy by the fact that the animals were actually fluent in English, but Sora was apparently unfazed. _Then again, on other worlds, talking animals might be common_, Vayn thought. 

The dog and duck nodded in answer to the teen's question. "Nice work," complimented a cheery voice from behind the two Keybladers.

Sora and Vayn turned around to find that Leon, Yuffie and Aerith were at the edge of the plaza, strolling towards them. "'Bout time you showed up," Vayn called, "We're all done here!"

"We can see that," Leon replied, a small smirk creeping on his face. _Maybe these guys_ _aren't completely hopeless_, he thought.

Leon switched his attention to the two Disney Castle residents. "I take it that the king sent you two here for the Keybladers?" he asked.

"That's right," dog answered. He turned back to the two teens. "So, how 'bout you two come with us?" he asked, "We can go to different worlds on out ship."

Vayn's eyes widened. "You mean we get to go cruising around the universe?" he asked, interest piqued.

Sora's head dropped down. "I wonder if we can find Riku and Kairi out there…" he asked himself quietly. Vayn's enthusiasm died down as he watched Sora. He had never seen him this sad before…

"Of course," the duck quacked. Sora's head rose suddenly. "Really?" he asked, optimistically.

Goofy leaned down to whisper into Donald's ear, "Are you sure?"

Donald whispered back, "Who knows? But we need them to come with us so we can find the king faster."

Vayn thought for a moment. "Guess we don't have much of a choice," he said soon after. "What do you mean?" asked Sora. Vayn explained, "If we don't go with them, we'd be stuck here without any way to look for the others." He grinned as he finished, "Besides, I wouldn't mind zooming through space for a while."

Sora looked up at Vayn for a moment, then drifted his eyes to the floor. "Yeah, I guess…" he replied sadly.

"But you can't come along like that, understand?" Donald told Sora, "No frowning, no sad face, Okay?"

"Yeah, ya gotta look funny like us, A-hyuck," interrupted Goofy, who was pushed away by Donald afterwards.

"This boat runs on happy faces!" Donald concluded cheerfully, hoping to coax a smile and the teen's face.

"Happy?" Sora repeated, quietly. There was a moment of silence in the plaza. _It's going to take some time for him to recover_, Vayn thought sadly.

Sora took a deep breath and leaned forward, a wide toothy grin stretching from ear to ear on his face. Vayn almost face faulted at this. _Never mind, _he thought with an exasperated sigh.

Goofy and Donald erupted into laughter, which continued for a while. Sora shrugged. "Okay, why not? We'll go with you guys."

"Well in that case, then we should introduce ourselves," the mage stated, wiping a laughter-induced tear from his feathered face. He extended his wing/arm out. "Donald Duck, at your service."

The shield-armed captain wiped his nose with a gloved finger. "Name's Goofy," he introduced, putting his hand on top of Donald's.

"I'm Sora," said the blue-eyed boy, joining his hand into the pile. "Don't forget me," Vayn interjected, placing his hand at the top, "Vayn's the name!"

"All for one, one for all," Goofy exclaimed.

The newly formed party pushed their hands down and parted, all wearing a smile.

They made for the door, Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie leading them to the First District.

Vayn chuckled suddenly. "What?" Sora asked, confused. Vayn's smile increased.

"Looks like we get to have that adventure after all," he said, eyes drifting upwards.

* * *

"Those squirts _actually_ took down that Heartless. Who'd a thought it?!" This voice's owner's hair flared up, glowing deep red like a bonfire as he observed the glowing yellow hologram that sat in the center of the lightless (aside from the light from the three-dimensional image) room. Showing from the hologram was two boys, holding giant keys, a duck with a wand, and a dog with a shield. 

"Calm down, Hades," said a composed voice from the group of silhouettes that encirlced the hologram, "Your anger is not beneficiary to our plans." A single eye from the source of this voice was the only thing visible of the man. "Still, their strength is interesting," he finished, his eye narrowing on the hologram before him.

"Such is the power of the Keyblade," stated another voice, "Their strength is not their own." A pair of shining, emerald snake eyes from the man's cane were the only clearly visible things from him.

"Why don't we just turn them into Heartless," cackled a multi-limbed figure, "That'll settle things quick enough!"

"And the brats' friends are the king's lackey's," another voice joined in, a sliver hook, which glinted in the pale light from the hologram, twirling around a long mustache. "Swoggle me eyes, their all bilge rats by the look of 'em!"

"You're no prize yourself," chuckled a cynical voice to the left of this man. "Shut up!" The hooked man retorted, raising his hook threateningly.

"Enough!"

A commanding female presence ended the two's quarrelling. She stepped forward into the small amount of light, revealing a woman dressed in a dark dress that covered her arms and feet. On top of her head was a horned hood. Her fingers were long and bony, with nails painted a cruel purple. Her eyes were pale yellow, full of evil and lust. Purple lips twisted in a malicious grin.

"The Keyblade has chosen them," she started, grabbing everyone's attention, "Will they conquer the darkness, or will it swallow them instead?" Her evil smile increased as she tapped her rod, topped with a glowing yellow orb, on the cold floor. A black crow flew in, landing on top of the orb with a caw.

She petted it as she concluded. "Either way, they may prove to be quite useful…"

* * *

**Chapter done!**

**_Edit: 12/20/07_--I decided to add Ursula back in. At first, I was just going to skip the world all together, but I changed my mind.**

**Well, tell me what you think of this. Your opinions are greatly appreciated!**

**Now for something I have not done before…: PREVIEW!**

**Chapter 6 preview:**

The party of four marched cautiously through the dark forest, straining their ears in nervous anticipation of an ambush of Heartless. Vayn picked up a slight noise from the trees, barely audible from the wind rustling their branches. Vayn lifted his hand, signaling for silence and for everyone to freeze. "Sh-h," he whispered, putting a finger to his lips.

The noise repeated, louder. Vayn's eyes darted from left to right, narrowed intently. A faceless smile flashed in front of him, and just as quickly disappeared. He rubbed his eyes with his forearm, thinking he was losing it.

The toothy grin faded in and out again, in a different location in the trees. "Who's there?" Sora demanded. "Who indeed," a cheery voice said in reply. In a branch of a tree nearby, a striped cat, whose strips alternated from purple to pink, faded in, head first, followed by the body…with the head held by the cat's right hand! "How do you do?" The cat asked, giddily.

The party gaped at the odd cat. Vayn was the first to break the silence that fell over the forest there.

"HOLY CRAP!! IT'S A DEMON-CAT!!!"

* * *

**How's that? Please leave a comment!**


	6. Wonderland

**Tada!! Chapter six!**

**I might as well admit it: I've hit writers' block on my other story. I'm hopping to break it by continuing this one for a while longer. **

**Anywho, this chapter is probably my longest, so enjoy!**

**Ch.6-Wonderland**

* * *

Vayn hissed in pain as he rubbed his sore, red hands gingerly. "Damn, I seriously need gloves," he muttered to himself. The grip of his Keyblade obviously rubbed uncomfortable against his palms when he fought. Already, calluses were forming on his palms. The previous fight from yesterday with the monstrosity known as 'Guard Armor' didn't help either. Plus, the night before that, back on the Islands, really took its own toll. 

Sora folded his arms behind his head and smiled devilishly. "Told you gloves were a good idea," he said complacently, remembering a time back on Destiny Islands when he was advising Vayn to purchase a pair of white gloves decorated with a black flame. Vayn had responded to this back then with "I don't need them." Now, Vayn felt sorry he didn't heed the boy.

But there was no way he would admit this. Not a chance.

"Shut up, Sora," Vayn moaned miserably.

The new party of four, comprised of Sora and Vayn, the recently anointed 'Keyblade Bearers', and the two residents of Disney Castle, Donald Duck and Goofy, were standing in the plaza of the First District, as ordered by Leon.

Said gunblader ambled up to the four, Yuffie and Aerith behind, and tossed a green pouch to Sora, who caught it deftly, creating a jingling noise from the pouch. Sora examined the pouch, puzzled.

"That's some munny for you guys," Yuffie said excitedly. Aerith smiled brightly at the four. "Think of it as a gift from all of us," she said. "Trust me, you'll need it," Leon finished with a nod.

"Alright! Munny!" Vayn exclaimed, swiping the pouch swiftly from Sora's hand, and backing out of the group before Sora could reclaim it. As Sora and Vayn continued this game of 'Keep-Away', Leon turned his attention towards the wand wielding duck (Yuffie and Aerith continued to watch the little competition between the two teens, who were supposed to be the saviors of the universe, dumbfounded).

"Have you taught them yet?" Leon asked coolly, oblivious to Vayn's various taunting chortles from behind him. Donald laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Not exactly…" Donald said slowly.

Sora stomped back into the group, triumphantly holding the pouch over his head. Vayn sulked behind, his lower lip in a pout. "Aww, I want to hold the munny," Vayn whined quietly.

Leon, using all of his will-power to retain a sigh and an eye roll, asked as calmly as he could, "How much do you guys know about magic?"

Vayn snapped out of his pout, raising a skeptical eyebrow at the Gunblader. "Magic?" he repeated, "You mean the fairy and wand kind?"

_Oh. My. God_, Leon gawked mentally, though still maintaining his composer, when he heard this. Yuffie and Aerith did about the same, shaking their heads in disbelief.

_**Thwack**_

"Ow!! What the hell Donald?!" Vayn shouted in response to the mage's attack on his shin.

Donald glared coldly at Vayn, who could've sworn that he saw the fires of hell burning behind the duck. "Don't. Insult. Magic." He commanded sternly.

As Vayn took cover behind Goofy and his shield, Sora asked, "Uh, so what's this about magic?"

Leon answered, "By using your Keyblades as mediums to channel your inner energy, or 'magic', the two of you should be able to pull off some powerful spells, which would undoubtedly be useful in your adventures."

Hearing this, Vayn vaguely recalled the short part of his dream that included choosing his 'power'. During this time, he remembered himself saying "I never believed in magic anyway."

Vayn's head dropped. _Oh the irony…_ he sighed to himself

Sora barely understood a word the man said, but with the little he did understand he asked, "So…we can use magic?" Leon nodded. Sora soon thereafter exclaimed enthusiastically, "Cool!"

"We would teach you two ourselves," Leon continued, "But we need to examine the town. No telling what the damage that last attack did."

"However," Yuffie jumped in, "Our fine-feathered-friend here would love to teach you guys instead."

Donald eyes went wide. "Me?! B-but-…"

"Well, have fun!" Yuffie finished, and she bounded off, Aerith strolling behind as she gave a final "Good luck" with a sweet smile.

Donald sighed, exasperated. _Of course I have to get stuck with teaching the twerps how to use magic, _he complained inwardly.

"Come on," he muttered, "Let's get the lesson started on the road." The four started for the large wooden door that was at the very end of the city district.

"Vayn."

Vayn turned and a pair of black, fingerless gloves landed against his face. He fumbled with them a little before looking back at the giver.

"Thought you might need a pair," Leon said nonchalantly. Vayn examined the gloves closer. The backs of them were covered in silver material that was hard but at the same time flexible. The palms were simple black leather.

"The silver material is called 'Mithril'," Leon said in anticipation of Vayn's first question. "Trust me: There'll come in handy."

"Wait," Vayn called out before Leon turned around. Leon glanced at Vayn passively. "Hm?"

"The Heartless…is it possible they knew who I was—what I was meant to become—I mean, before I got the Keyblade." Vayn's voice was solemn and serious, but also a bit hesitant. He had to know; had to know if it was probable that the Heartless had purposely targeted him those four years ago, no matter what the answer was.

Leon's eyes closed in thought, his hand carefully rubbing his temple, his 'thinking pose' Vayn guessed. "It might be possible," Leon replied, "Seeing how the Keyblade chooses its bearer via the heart and Heartless tack their victims the same way."

Vayn's head and spirits severely fell at this answer, a breakdown imminent. Maybe it was his fault…

"You can't blame yourself," Leon advised when he saw the downcast response overcome the boy, "There is no way you could have stopped it."

Vayn's head rose again, a bit surprised that Leon was actually showing such a caring gesture.

Of course Leon had no idea of the event four years ago, but he would know that dismayed look anywhere. Personal experience has a way to do that to you.

Leon turned and sauntered away, waving a hand behind him as a farewell, seeing that there was nothing left to be said. "Uh, thanks!" Vayn called after the gunblader, waving his free hand as his own farewell, though he doubted that Leon could see it.

"So, you still think that you don't need gloves," Sora asked sarcastically, eyeing Vayn's newly acquired gloves that he wasted no time in putting on. "Hey, they were a gift," Vayn answered defensively, "It would've been rude to decline."

"Yeah, sure," Sora chimed, folding his arms behind his head as he followed the duck mage to the large door that served as the entrance.

When the other's eyes were off of him, Vayn's head dropped. _It wasn't my_ _fault_, he repeated to himself over and over, hoping for the phrase to meld into his mind permanently. He continued to smile all the same.

* * *

"So, all we have to do is point and say 'Fire'?" 

Vayn was surprised at how easy this magic-casting business sounded. All it required was focus. You didn't even need a medium, i.e. a Keyblade or wand, to use it, though a medium made the spell much more potent.

"Well, that's basically it, but--…"

Not letting the mage finished the explanation Vayn raised his Keyblade and pointed in at the large brick wall that lined the way that led to the 'World Gate', as Goofy called it. _Now, _Vayn said inwardly_, let's see if this actually works._

"Fire!"

The tip of Vayn's Keyblade did nothing except fizzle.

Donald stared at the steam rising from the blade, disappointed. Sora just snickered, to which Vayn glowered at him. "Let's see _you_ do better, Spiky," he challenged, pointing his Keyblade at Sora competitively.

"All right, I will," Sora accepted, holding his Keyblade in front of him and focusing. _Come on…_

"_Fire!_"

A burst of flame shot out and struck the wall adjacent from him, kicking up dust. A small sized scorch mark was left on the wall. Sora whooped and swung his Keyblade to the side victoriously. "How about _that_, Vayn?"

Vayn gawked, then assumed a brooding position. "…lucky…"

Sora smiled and replied with a cocky laugh before blasting another fire ball against the wall.

Of course, an experienced mage like Donald knew a proficient 'Fire' spell was larger and stronger, though for a first timer, it was pretty good. But still…

_Maybe a 'Fire' spell wasn't such a good idea…,_ Donald mentally noted, watching Sora's eyes drift off, obviously to thoughts of setting fire to various things.

"_Fire!! _Hahaha!"

Although still looking displeasured, Vayn noted something. _Sora's a pyromaniac…who knew?_

* * *

The trio crossed the threshold of the World Gate, coming to a large, futuristic port. Behind them were charcoaled bricks and stone, left by a fire-crazy Sora. 

A wide steel walkway crossed in front of them, extending to the left and to the right. Long, inclined, steel pier-like ways stuck out at regular intervals from the walkway, spaced by fifty meters or so, and they could be seen for a long ways from either the left or the right. The port seemed to be enclosed in a bubble of transparent energy, which provided the port with breathable air as Donald explained.

The quartet, led by Donald and Goofy, walked towards a pier and climbed up the gentle slope that ended at a platform and on it was a red and yellow ship.

Sora and Vayn rushed forward and examined the starboard side of the ship, feeling it with excited hands. The material, although firm, felt elastic to the touch. "What is this stuff?" Vayn asked, pounding lightly on the side, making a hollow noise.

"That there is Gummi material," Goofy explained, and Donald continued with, "We build our ships with Gummi blocks, making it easy to take apart or build, but at the same time, providing a safe journey."

Donald produced a small, orange remote from a pocket in his vest and, pressing a small red button, opened a sliding door on the side of the ship, about two feet above the heads of the teens. Out of the door came unfolded a yellow/red metal ladder that automatically reached down to the floor.

Donald first climbed up, followed by Goofy, and then by Sora. Vayn stood by the ladder, eyeing the opening in the ship. Donald's head popped into view as the mage asked, "Aren't you coming?"

"Er, who's driving?" Vayn inquired, slightly nervous. "I am, of course," Donald answered, pointing his thumb at himself. "Aw, but I wanna drive," Sora's voice came from the door.

A chill ran up Vayn's spine. The thought of a talking duck, or worse Sora, driving a high-tech spaceship through deep space filled him with absolute terror. He audible gulped.

"What's the matter?"

"N-nothing," Vayn stuttered. _Okay, you gotta do this…go to your happy place. _

Against all of his logic, Vayn ascended the ladder, praying that the duck was a decent driver.

As soon as Vayn entered, he gaped at the large assortment of instruments and technologies around him. "Whoa…" he gasped breathlessly.

At that moment, a hologram phased up at the center of the room, from a table like structure. Two chipmunks were seen in the 3-D image. "Hiya fellas!" called the chipmunk with a black nose in a high pitched voice. "Are these the 'kids' the King mentioned? I thought there was only one," said the other chipmunk with a red nose in a scratchier voice.

"Long story," Donald surmised. Sora and Vayn stared at the hologram, Sora captivated by the hologram (he began to poke it, his finger phasing right through the transparent image) and Vayn confused.

Goofy stepped between them as he explained, "Those two are Chip and Dale, our very own engineers from Disney Castle."

Vayn's mouth widened at the revelation that the ship they were about to fly was engineered by a pair of chipmunks. Sora, on the other hand, simply asked, "Why aren't they with us?" directing it towards Goofy.

"This is a retrieval mission," answered Donald as he took a seat behind the wheel, "so they didn't need to. If we do need help, we can contact them via the communication device." He motioned over the hologram with a wave of his hand.

"Now buckle up," the duck commanded, pressing a few buttons, preparing for takeoff. Goofy sat down leisurely, Sora took his seat excitedly, and Vayn—well, he was already buckled, holding on tight.

* * *

The ride was surprisingly smooth, despite the constant struggle between Donald and Sora for pilot, so Vayn relaxed early in the trip. 

"I said _NO_!"

"Aw, come on! I'm the Keyblade Master!"

"I don't care _who _you are! You are _not_ gonna fly this ship!"

The cockpit was actually quite roomy, with four blue seats, one up front and three behind it (One was quickly added before lift off). A dashboard covered in various blinking buttons and knobs was at the front along with a steering wheel, which Donald used with some skill. Vayn sat at the left end of the ship, facing the thick glass of the cockpit. By his reflection, he could see that his hair had now become somewhat spiky and scruffy, though it was far from Sora's level of unkemptness.

"Pl-eeease?!"

"Sit down!"

Vayn heaved a weary sigh, as did Goofy on the other end of the ship, as the two others proceeded to argue. Vayn continued to stare out the glass into the vast space, watching thousands of tiny, twinkling stars around him with a lazy hand holding up his head.

Back on his home world, Vayn could clearly recall nights he and his father stood under the night sky, star gazing and searching the dark blanket above for U.F.O's, meteor, and such. Over course, this led to his star gazing habit and his love of space, though his astronomical spirit was presently subdued by current events.

By what had been told to him by Donald, and by what he remembered long ago back in his home town, many, many more stars used to fill the sky, a dazzling number. But because of those Heartless bastards, the number of stars, which in reality were worlds, had been greatly reduced.

To add to this, Donald also gave a lecture on the 'Rules of World Travel', stressing that it was 'against the rules to meddle in the affairs of other worlds' as he worded it. Whatever…

If the Heartless were already on the world, the top priority would be to eliminate them, right? Not to avoid 'meddling'.

He unconsciously reached down to his chest, lightly gripping the crescent moon pendent as he wearily continued to gaze outward. After all that has happened, the necklace had transformed from a simple gift to a lasting memento of Destiny Islands. It was now very precious to him and he held in dearly.

He gradually lifted his head, and asked, "So, where's our first stop?"

Donald paused his little brawl with Sora for the question. "How am I suppose to--?"

A sudden beeping from a sonar screen that was a little off to the right of the steering wheel interrupted the mage. On the screen was a small pink dot that was north of a green arrow head that represented the Gummi Ship.

"I'm guessing that we're almost there," Vayn presumed, now more awake then before. Donald grumbled something inaudible as he minutely changed his heading for the world that was displayed on the sonar.

In quick minutes, a small world came into view directly in front of the ships bow. The world was covered in green, most likely a vast wood, and there was a large clearing in the middle. As they closed in, they could make out the outline of a large building at the edge of the clearing.

"Well, I guess it really _is_ a small world, after all," Vayn said a bit tediously. Donald and Goofy gave him a bemused glance, but shrugged it off as they rose to their feet to prepare for the landing. They moved into a hover closely above the woods before the large building previously mentioned, though trying to remain discreet.

Vayn leaned against the door, anxious to get the journey underway, as the animals continued the preparations. "Is this the 'land' button?" Sora asked with child-like enthusiasm and innocence, not waiting for an answer before pressing a large red button nearby.

"Wait, Sora! That's—."

Donald was too late with the warning, as the door Vayn was leaning against swung open, leaving Vayn nothing to support him.

"A-ah—Whoa no!"

"—the door," Donald finished, quietly.

Vayn stumbled back, flailing his arms about to try to keep his balance. Finally, he began to fall back down towards the world's surface.

"Vayn!"

Sora grabbed Vayn's arm just as his feet left the cockpit's steel floor…taking Sora with him.

"Vayn! Sora!"

Donald grabbed onto Sora's flailing arm, but with Donald's light weight, he was easily pulled down into the plummet too.

"Vayn! Sora! Donald!"

Now Goofy grabbed onto the wing/arm of the mage, but due to the combined weights of the other three party members, he also was pulled down with them.

And that left the Gummi Ship empty, save for Jiminy, who was gaping in shock and confusion at the event before him. Four of its occupants were now screaming for the strange land below.

"SORA!" Vayn shouted over the sound of air rushing by them.

"YEAH?!"

"IF WE LIVE THROUGH THIS, REMIND ME TO BEAT THE CRAP OUTTA YOU!!"

Sora didn't get the chance to respond because at that moment, the quartet found themselves heading straight for a gaping black hole in the earth.

"WHAAAA!!!"

"AHHHHHH!!!"

"YAAHOHOHOYYY!!!"

"SHIT!!!"

They fell right into the hole. Vayn's eyes were tightly shut, expecting to meet the ground at the bottom of the hole with a violent splat. But something was wrong…

His descent had slowed to a gentle float. Vayn unveiled one eye, then both when he saw that he _was_ floating down. Looking around, he saw the other three, also looking around, dazed, but nonetheless relieved.

Around them were walls, cylindered, with clocks, fireplaces, and other such ornaments covering them, placed in such a fashion that it led Vayn to believe that whoever put them there had no clue what he or she was doing.

Vayn began to twirl about, as were the others except Goofy, making the most out of their zero-gravity time. Goofy rolled over and seemingly tried to fall asleep.

Vayn saw a checkered floor slowly closing in below him. "Guys!" Vayn called out, getting Donald and Sora's attention.

The three landed unharmed on the checkered ground, but as for Goofy…

**Thud**

Goofy, who didn't turn over, instead slammed face first on the ground. Sora and Donald shook their heads while Vayn held up a sign that had the number '10' printed in red.

"Oh, by the way Sora," Vayn suddenly said (The sign gone).

"Wha--?"

**POW**

Vayn swiftly slapped the back of Sora's head, remembering his threat. Sora gripped the back of his sore head. "Ow!! Geez Vayn, it was an accident!"

"Yeah, an accident that could've _killed_ us!" Vayn retorted, shaking his fists at Sora.

"Oh dear! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" came another high pitched voice.

The argument was halted and the party turned their heads (except Goofy, who merely looked up from the ground) as a white rabbit, dressed in a formal red waist coat and carrying a golden pocket watch, rushed by them.

"Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear! I'm here! I should be there! The Queen! She'll have my head for sure!"

The rabbit turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

"Well, that's a bit strange," Vayn piped up, walking for the corner, his previous anger discarded.

"Where're you going," Sora asked.

"Following it," Vayn replied plainly.

"Why?" Sora inquired. Vayn turned towards him and asked with an innocent smile, "Why not?"

Sora inhaled, apparently about to give a reason, but sighed, unable to find a good one. "..."

"Then it's decided," Vayn spoke once again, "Let's follow that crazy, talking bunny."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy shared an exasperated look, and sighed simultaneously. Reluctantly, they followed behind the dark clothed teen.

Vayn walked up to the only door that was in the weird room. "Allow me," Sora interjected, and he opened the door and found that behind it stood another door, only smaller. "Huh?"

Sora opened that door, only to find yet another door.

This process repeated for another five doors, which Sora sped through. Breathing heavily, Sora opened the last door, one that was only four feet high, glad to find no more doors behind it. "Finally!" Sora exclaimed, storming through the threshold.

Now the party was in a large room, comprised of a round table with two bottles on it, a chair next to the table, a large fireplace/stove, and various pictures and lamps hanging on the walls and the ceiling.

They caught a short glimpse of the rabbit, now only inches high, running through a tiny wooden door.

"How'd he get so small?" Sora asked kneeling down towards the door.

"No you're simply too big," yawned the golden knob of the door in a drowsy voice.

The four jumped in surprise. "It _TALKS_?!"gaped Donald. The knob yawned again. "Must you be so loud," asked the knob, "You woke me up."

Goofy bowed his head politely. "G' Morning," he said adequately.

"Good night!" the knob replied rather rudely, "I need more sleep…"

"Wait!" Sora knelt lower, "Tell us how to get smaller!"

"Why don't you try the bottles," the knob answered, annoyed, and pointed his long nose at the table, "Over there." After that, the knob dozed off.

Vayn picked up the cup filled with blue liquid and examined it quizzically. The bottom of it, strangely enough, read 'Drink Me'. He sniffed it, and was surprised that it smelled pleasantly sweet. Sora swiped the bottle, boldly saying, "Let me try," and sipped it.

The teen suddenly shrank down to about Vayn's shin. "Whoa, that was weird," Sora said in a daze. Vayn looked back at the bottle and drank it as well. When he was minimized, he shook his head clear. "Wow, tingly."

With the quartet shrunken, they walked back to the door. "Okay, we're small, now open up," Vayn commanded. The only reply was a loud snore from the knob. "Aw, come on!" Vayn shouted, "Wake up!"

Just as he was about to slam his fist hard on its 'face', when Sora called from in front of a small (Or rather large now) mouse hole, "Vayn, let's go this way."

Vayn looked over the three, then back at the door. His fist tightened as he decided whether to smack the door knob awake or walk away. The latter eventually won and Vayn quickly joined the others.

* * *

After a rather long trip in the darkness of the mouse hole, the quartet found themselves in a spacious courtyard, with neatly trimmed hedges on both sides and rose bushes in the shape of hearts. The hedges conjoined and formed an elegant heart shaped archway and beyond it the group could see that a trial was in progress. 

What was more, they could see that, standing guard, were _cards_; playing cards wielding clubs or spears, according to their respective suite. Cards of the club suit wielded clubs, cards of the spade suit had spears, and finally hearts and diamonds carried axes.

They stood in formal lines that led up to a petite blond girl in a blue dress and a white apron. The white rabbit from earlier ran up a stand with its own spiral stair case and took a stand, blowing a fanfare despite his exhausted state.

"Court is now in session," the rabbit gasped out weakly, "Your majesty, the Queen of Hearts presiding."

The rabbit motioned a respectful hand towards a rather large woman wearing a black and red dress and waving a heart shaped fan in front of her. The Queen rose from her throne/stand haughtily and pointed her fan accusingly at the small girl before her. The poor girl was totally lost, confused, and a bit afraid of the women condemning her for god-knows-what.

"This girl is the culprit; there is no doubt about!" she shouted proudly.

"Wha-what?!" the girl gasped in an English accent, "What have I—?"

"Silence!" the Queen roared, "The reason you are here is because I say so!"

"That's so unfair!" the girl proclaimed, thought it was so quiet that the Queen didn't even hear it.

"That _is_ unfair!" Sora agreed, talking with the others from the other side of the archway. "We should do something!" Vayn suggested, equally angered by the situation.

"But were outsiders," pointed out Goofy, "So that would be muddling."

"Meddling," Donald corrected wearily.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" the Queen asked conceitedly.

"All I have to say is: I've done absolutely nothing wrong," replied the girl, using a slightly scolding tone. "You may be Queen but that doesn't give you the right to--."

"SILCENCE!!" the Queen bellowed pounding the stand as she rose higher and glaring at the young girl with intense eyes, "You dare deify me?!"

"This does _not_ look promising," Vayn muttered, looking over to Sora, who had the same opinion by the look in his eyes.

"The court finds the defendant: Guilty as charged!" the Queen decreed, without even a jury present, "For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart: OFF WITH HER HEAD!!"

At 'theft of my heart', Sora and Vayn gasped, both quickly comprehending who the real culprit was, and at 'Off with her head' the two teens jumped into action.

One of the cards, wielding a sharpened axe, stepped forward, raising the weapon over the girl as she pleaded, "No, no! Please--!"

Vayn summoned his Keyblade in a flash of gray and tossed it with expert precision at the weapon. In the nick of time, the axe was knocked away.

"Stop!" commanded Sora as he jumped between her and the cards, barricading the girl (Donald and Goofy were standing in shock at the archway still).

"What is the meaning of this?!" the Queen demanded. "Who are you?"

"Excuse me, your majesty," Sora said as he stepped forward and bowed with pseudo politeness, withholding the urge to gag, "But we know who the real culprit is."

Vayn stepped next to Sora. "Yeah! It's the Heart—."

Donald slapped a hand over Vayn's mouth, muting the rest of the word. "That's a secret!" he whispered hotly into his ear.

"Uh, anyway," Sora continued, "She's not the one you're looking for."

"Nonsense!" the Queen replied, dismissing the statement, "Have you any proof?"

"Um…well…"

The guards promptly took the girl away and pushed her into a gold bird cage that was next to the Queen's stand. "Until you have proof of her innocence," the Queen said, "we will keep her in our custody. But be quick about it!"

Vayn stepped up to the bird cage, his ears still ringing and sore from being chewed out by one pissed-off duck. Sure, he and Sora just saved the poor girl's life, but they were still 'meddling in another world's affairs'. _Bullshit!_ Vayn yelled inwardly.

"You okay?" Vayn asked the young girl who was hugging her knees close on the cold floor of the cage. Upon closer look, he could see that she was about seven years old, innocent and fragile. The thought of how anybody could actually believe a child like this could be capable of attacking a queen was beyond him.

Sora took a stand next to Vayn, staring at the sentry close by strangely, though he hastily turned away when the card looked back at him coldly.

"Yes, thank you," the girl answered, remembering her manners even in her present situation. She scrambled to her feet and gave a formal curtsy as she said, "And thank you for saving me."

"No problem," Sora exclaimed, pounding his hand on his chest proudly.

"Anyway," Vayn interjected, pointing his thumb at himself, "I'm Vayn, and," he motioned his hand to Sora, "My spiky headed friend here is Sora." Now he waved his hand at the anthropomorphic animals behind him, "And those guys are Donald and Goofy."

"I'm Alice," the girl introduced.

As Vayn outstretched his arm for a friendly handshake, the sentry came to life and blocked his way with a black spear. "That's enough," the card commanded in a low voice, "Your time with the prisoner is up."

"What're you gonna do, give me a paper cut?" Vayn affronted the spade card. Several other cards nearby threateningly directed their weapons at the boy.

"Ah, point well taken," Vayn revised. The two teens waved goodbye to Alice and went off through another doorway to collect the 'evidence', which in itself brought up the next problem.

* * *

"How are we gonna prove that Heartless did it?" Vayn asked as the quartet wandered the dark forest that was on the other side of the door way. "Can't we just say so?" Sora recommended. 

"No!" Donald shouted, which was quickly on its way to becoming a cliché.

"Telling them the truth 'bout the Heartless would be against the rules," Goofy repeated kindly, "And who knows how they will react?"

"What do you mean by that?" Vayn asked.

"It like this," Donald began, hinting the coming of a lecture, including some interesting vocabulary words. "By telling them about the Heartless, we will be crossing the boundaries of what they believe to be true. This will lead to a contradiction to their perception of reality, thereby introducing chaos to the world." Donald concluded with a stern, "Two truths cannot coexist."

"All right, I get it," Vayn sighed, "No speaky the truth."

After a beat of silence in the virtually soundless woods, Vayn decided to announce his 'amazing, full-proof plan' that he had formulated. "How 'bout we just break her out and run!"

The combined stares of the other three dismantled that possibility in Vayn's mind. "Hmph, fun-killers…"

"How 'bout we just _show_ her a Heartless!" Sora suddenly exclaimed. "That way, we won't have to explain anything."

"Wait a second!" Donald shouted, "You _want_ to look for a Heartless?"

"Scared?" Vayn accused, actually liking the plan. The proud duck, hating the accusation, cursed to himself, but agreed nonetheless.

Now the party of four marched cautiously through the darkening forest, staining their eyes and ears in nervous anticipation for a Heatless ambush. _Figures_, grumbled Vayn to himself, _When we want to find a Heartless, we can't find it, but when we don't want to, they come in a damn army!_

Vayn picked up a slight noise from the trees, barely audible over the wind that was rustling the branches. He motioned his hand for the party to freeze, then brought his fingers to his lips, whispering, "Sh-h."

Sora and Vayn quietly summoned their individual Keyblades. The noise repeated, louder. Vayn's eyes darted from left to right, narrowed intently. A faceless smile flashed in front of him and just as quickly faded away. Vayn wiped his eyes with his forearm, thinking he was losing it. The toothy grin faded in and out again in another location in the trees.

"Who's there?!" Sora demanded, gripping his blade tighter. "Who indeed," a cheery voice said in reply. In a branch of a nearby tree, a striped cat, whose strips alternated from purple to pink vertically, faded in, head first, followed by the body…on top of the head! "How do you do?" the cat head asked giddily, apparently oblivious to its own body that was _dancing_ on its head.

The party gaped at the odd cat in shock. Vayn was the first to break the silence that fell over the forest there.

"OH MY GOD!! IT'S A CAT FROM HELL!!"

The cat, the body hopping from its head and reattaching it to its neck, continued to smile broadly as it said, "Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head and she's not guilty of a thing!"

His heart beat back to normal, Sora stared down the cat. "So you know Alice is innocent?"

"As do you," the cat said.

Donald squinted at the cat. "How else do you know?"

"The Cheshire Cat knows all truths," the cat riddled, "As has not yet found contradiction nor chaos."

The party shared a dumbstruck stare at this statement. The cat gestured a paw to the clearing around them.

"Here reside shadows," the Cheshire Cat stated, "Here, you will find the evidence that you seek so as to prove the innocence of Alice."

With that, the animal faded away.

Goofy leaned towards Donald and whispered into his ear, "Do ya think we can trust him?"

The cat reappeared, only for a moment, to puzzle them with, "To trust or not to trust; I trust you will decide!"

Vayn sighed. "Anybody else getting annoyed by this world?"

At that moment, a Large Body, several Soldiers, and even more Shadows arrived to confront the quartet. "Speak of the devil…" groaned Vayn as he readied his Keyblade, charging into the fray with Sora, Donald and Goofy in tow.

After learning his lesson from the day before, Vayn knew a frontal attack on the Large Body wouldn't work, so he jumped over its head, flipping himself over mid way, and smacked it upside the head with the blunt end of his sword. It wobbled a bit, but a sweeping slice to the back of its stocky legs, courtesy of Vayn, made the fat Heartless eat dirt. A falling stab from Vayn finished it off for good.

Sora vertically slashed one Soldier, following up with a clockwise spin, and defeated it fast. Next to him, Donald zapped two Shadows out of existence with a 'Thunder' spell. Goofy charged two Shadows and smashed them both into a tree.

Sora guarded a swipe from a Soldier, oblivious to a Shadow that crept behind him in his blind spot. Sora pushed the Solider back and smashed its head in with a jump strike. That's when he heard a slight noise behind him.

Sora spun around finding the Shadow jumping for his face, leaving no time for a quick guard. He braced for the attack…

"_Fire!!_"

A ball of flame overcame the Shadow and scorched it into nothing. The next thing Sora knew, he heard the cocky exclamation, "Fireball to the face, bitch!"

Guess who said that. "You owe me one, Sora," Vayn claimed as he stepped into Sora's view.

Vayn grinned widely, brash. Then he heard a slashing sound, and found Sora to his right, his blade and left arm extended behind him and the remnants of a Shadow fading away.

Sure enough, while Vayn was gloating, a Shadow snuck in for a cheap shot, but was denied by Sora. "You were saying?" Sora asked sarcastically as he slung his Keyblade behind his head.

Vayn muttered a thank you, and returned to the fight.

Now there was only a single Soldier left. The party blocked off its route, so that it could only go back towards the 'court house' or whatever the crazy building was. Vayn advanced and gave the Solider an uppercut with the blunt end of his Keyblade.

With the Heartless dizzied, Sora, Donald and Goofy held it down, hurriedly carrying their struggling evidence away towards the queen.

* * *

The Queen yawned heavily, waving her fan about leisurely. She was waiting impatiently for the return of those two strange kids so that she could continue with her trial already. Actually, she planned on having all five of them, including the duck and dog, executed, just for fun, especially the duck. After beheading it, she could cook it, season it... 

Before she could begin drooling over the thought of having a feast, a metal clad creature flew in through an entry way nearby, followed soon thereafter by the two boys.

"What in the…" she gasped, gawking at the strange creature. The attention that was trained on it soon left once Sora disposed of it with a swing of his blade.

"What was that?!" the Queen shouted, hammering her fist on the stand as if it were a gavel pleading for peace.

"That's your evidence, Queenie," Vayn answered ardently, pointing his Keyblade at the Queen of Hearts threateningly. "Now let Alice go."

The Queen looked down at the caged girl, who was smiling jovially at her imminent freedom. She scowled fiercely and bellowed, "SILENCE!! _I_ am the law! And I say that you are _all_ GUILTY!!"

She ordered the sentry to pull a concealed level, which raised the bird cage high, ridiculously high, up, as well as pulling a cloth over it, making it so Alice couldn't be seen. "GUARDS!!"

"You've gotta be joking…" grumbled Vayn as a deck of cards flooded in. The quartet went into a defensive position as the cards surrounded them, training their clubs/spears/axes at the four. Donald and Goofy tentatively gazed around at the small army of cards.

Sora and Vayn on the other hand looked almost happy. "Sora," Vayn called, unafraid.

"Yeah?"

"You feel like playin' a game of fifty-two pick up—by which I mean 'put down'?"

Sora grinned broadly, Keyblade switching to an offensive stance in his grasp. "_O-h_ yeah!"

The Queen brandished her fan as if it were a sword and swung it in the direction of the four. "ATTACK!!"

"Let's play!!" Vayn cried, charging for a random guard. The card went for a stab with its spear, but the ever agile Vayn side stepped to the left and brought his blade down upon the weapon, trapping it. Then, Vayn spun clockwise, knocking the guard viciously in its face with the back of his hand—now covered with Mithril (Here's a math lesson: Mithril + Back hand Pain!)

The guard was heavily dazed and was soon put down when Vayn, using his foot to bring the spear into his left hand, swung the spear into the side of its head. Wasting no time, Vayn jumped, spinning around to take care of the surrounding cards with his barrowed spear. He finished by throwing his Keyblade into another guards face, quickly recalling it, then repeating it again against a guard that came up from behind him.

Although he hated to admit it, throwing and recalling his Keyblade in succession drained him of energy quickly; probably had to do with the fact that it required focus and precision.

"Heh, hope that hurt!" Vayn laughed nonetheless, but was cut short when a spear whizzed by his head. He slapped another away with his Keyblade before sprinting at the attackers.

Sora quickly disposed of a club-bearing guard with a jump strike before sweeping two other cards off their thin feet with a low sweep of his blade. After that, he blasted an approaching guard away with a 'Fire' spell, almost turning the unsuspecting card to ash. He had to soon jump back when a heart card swung its axe for him. When it swung again, Sora struck the axe upward, causing the card to lose balance, and brought down his blade on its head, a move he decided to call 'Blitz'.

He was just about to laugh out loud in enjoyment, but he had to back step away from another attack.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Donald scorched/electrocuted/froze forthcoming foes while Goofy blocked attacks with his moogle-crafted shield, muttering a "Sorry" after knocking one card out with a swing of his shield.

Vayn and Sora stood back-to-back, staring back at the surrounding cards. "Well," Vayn began, catching his breath, "This is a bit harder than I thought." He tried his best to ignore the slight bleeding from a cut on his arm from an axe.

"Tell me about it," Sora panted back, also trying not to focus on a small gash on his leg.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, GUARDS," the Queen of Hearts roared, "THEY ARE JUST CHILDREN!! TAKE CARE OF THEM ALL—!!"

"SHUT UP!!" Vayn shouted back, fed up. He stopped her yelling by tossing the spear he still held at her. Hardly aware, the side of the spear struck her in the face and she fell back out of her chair.

The other cards all froze and stared at their fallen queen, too worried to pay attention to the two teens before them.

"Didn't mean to do that," Vayn said, inwardly chanting 'Hell yeah' to himself. Taking the opportunity, Sora hopped over the cards towards the lever that the sentry had pulled and struck it down quickly.

The cage soon lowered, stopping right next to Sora, who rushed to see if the poor girl was alright. "Alice—," Sora gasped, pulling the cloth away.

The cage was empty. There wasn't a trace of Alice to be seen. Everybody present halted, gawking at the barren cage. "Where'd she go?" the Queen thought aloud. Her confusion morphed into rage as she turned on Vayn. "What have you done with my culprit?!"

"How would I know?" he shouted back, "We were a bit busy fighting off _your_ guards!"

She growled before yelling at her guards, "Find her! Bring her back!"

The guards saluted, scattering about randomly to search for the blonde.

* * *

"Now what?" Sora asked the party as they came back out to the large room they were in before. His response came in the form of a shrug from the other three. 

The Cheshire Cat from earlier faded in, doing a handstand atop the table. Vayn, surprised by the cat's entrance, jumped a bit.

"Can't you just take the door like a regular cat?!" he shouted.

Still wearing that goofy smile, the cat jumped from its hands to its feet. "Alas, having found the evidence you sought, now you find the defendant lost. Poor Alice…"

"So…you've seen her?" Sora asked, a bit lost in the cat's rhyme.

"No."

"Why you…!" Vayn breathed, deeply irritated by the animals riddles.

"But I have seen the darkness of the heart of this world," the cat continued. "I shall show you."

He clapped his paws, turning on two lamps on the ceiling above. "Have you heard?" said the cat. "Where there is the brightest of flame, there is the darkest of shadow…"

A cold chill ran down the groups spines all the way to their feet. "Have you prepared your hearts for the worst? If not, too bad!"

The cat disappeared.

**Fwoom **

A giant red blur fell before them, rocking the ground when it landed before jumping back over the table.

The creature slowly rose to its full height, and the party could clearly see it.

It was very tall, covered in red and black armor. It had four long legs, red and black, that joined together at its two black feet. At the ends of it papery arms were thin hands twirling batons lit with fire around. But what was most interesting was its head—or _heads_.

From the neck protruded five faces, alternating between red and black, each of them following the four adventurers with small yellow eyes. Although it wasn't visible to the party, at the top of the heads was a heart emblem.

Vayn sighed. "I hate cats," Vayn groaned before the monster blasted at them with a fireball from its batons.

The four narrowly escaped from being fried. Sora and Vayn summoned their Keyblades, prepped to battle. Donald's wand and Goofy's shield were quickly at the ready.

Vayn rushed forward, only to get blown back by a fireball from the giant. He managed to save himself from permanent damage by putting up his guard, though his arm was badly burned.

"GAH! Damn it!"

Donald was by him in seconds and chanted, "_Cure_!" The scalded skin quickly healed, though his arm still burnt. "Ah, thanks Donald," he grunted while nursing his arm.

Sora then tried his luck, stepping left and right to avoid the fire blasts, but was ultimately swatted away by a low sweep of the Heartless' arm.

As the Heartless slowly stood back to its full height, Goofy helped Sora up. Donald brandished his wand and swung it forward with a mighty, "_FIRA!!_"

A large burst of flame rocketed out of the wand and crashed against the Heartless. The creature swayed back with the blast, but suddenly recoiled forward, launching an even bigger fireball.

Sora, Vayn and Goofy rolled away from the retaliatory attack, and Donald dove away, but was still singed by the tail.

"YEAOW!!" the duck yelled, jumping around and trying to slap the embers off of his butt.

Vayn, who would have normally gawked at the dancing duck, growled at the Heartless. _Big,_ _strong, shoots fire, resist to fire_, he listed to himself, _tricky S.O.B…hey, that's a good name for it—Trickmaster. _

"Well," groaned Sora, cradling his side after the blow he received, "How do we fight this thing."

"It seems that you are in dire need of some assistance."

The Cheshire Cat faded in next to the two, still grinning.

"You?!" Vayn rebuked, "You're the one who sent this thing after us in the first place!!"

Vayn roared as he charged at the Trickmaster, telling himself that the cat is next up on the list. He managed to avoid getting hit by fireballs and hopped over a sweep of the Heartless' baton, landing a strike on the knee of one of its long legs.

It knelt low with the blow, giving Vayn a chance to strike it long head, but before he could, the Trickmaster caught him with the baton, sending him upwards. Vayn crashed down to the floor, stomach aching, and merely missed getting crushed by the recovered Trickmaster's foot by scant inches.

Goofy protected him from another fireball as Vayn sat himself up, tired and weak. Sora rushed to his side, helping him up.

"It is a miracle that you made it this far," the Cheshire Cat chided, and lifted his paw tediously. "I will grant you the power you lack."

At his words, both Vayn and Sora felt a cool aura surround them, almost as if it were snowing on their heads.

Sora turned on the Trickmaster. A force from within his chest—no his, heart—urged him on.

A bluish-white glow covered the tip of his Keyblade as he pointed it at the Trickmaster. With intense focus, Sora chanted, "_BLIZZARD!!_"

A burst of white energy shot forth from his blade, chilling the air around it, launching itself at the Trickmaster. Upon impact, the Trickmaster stumbled back, a dent in its armored chest filled with frost.

Vayn hopped jumped to his feet, feeling the same urge inside him as Sora. "My turn! _BLIZZARD_!!"

Two bursts of energy shot from his Keyblade, hitting the flamed batons of the Trickmaster and put out the fire almost instantaneously as well as freezing them to its hands.

The Trickmaster visibly trembled.

As this was happening, Goofy was helping Donald to his feet and putting out the fire on his tail. Noticing the two Key bearers' new powers, Goofy asked, "Did you teach 'em that?"

Donald shook his head, gawking all the while.

Sora turned towards the two animals, grinning. "Leave it to us," he said confidently as he and Vayn charged the Heartless. Sora shot a 'Blizzard' spell at its left foot as Vayn jumped and struck its right knee.

With it kneeled in pain, Sora rose and repeatedly attacked its head, finishing with a devastating vertical slice and causing the Heartless to stumble backward. Since its left foot was still tethered down with ice, it fell to the floor with a loud crash.

Vayn leapt into the air, Keyblade ready for overwhelming falling stab. With an outcry, Vayn fell upon the Trickmaster's first head, Keyblade lodged deep within its second.

The other three heads cried out with a high-pitched shriek, piercing the otherwise silent air.

"EAT THIS!! _BLIZZARD!!_" Vayn roared over the shrieks of pain. A pulse of cold energy ripped through the Trickmaster, silencing the other heads. At first, it remained still, rigid. Then, the whole body froze over, completely engulfed in a sheet of ice.

Vayn dislodged his Keyblade and jumped away from the Heartless ice sculpture he had created.

"I call it, 'Trickmaster On Ice'," Vayn stated, gesturing his Keyblade over the frozen beast as if it were a piece of art. Sora, Keyblade down to his side, stepped next to Vayn. "It's beautiful," Sora said in mock-appreciation, "We should put it in a museum."

As if it heard the statement, believed it, and decided to make the option impossible, the Heartless burst into light, the ice around it shattering. Out of the light, a heart rose, disappearing soon after.

"Nice move," was all the Cheshire Cat had to say about that, though he was out of Sora and Vayn's earshot.

* * *

The two Keybladers stared at the empty space where the Trickmaster previously laid until Donald and Goofy came up and gave them congratulatory pats on the back. 

"(Yawn) What is with all the racket? Can't you keep it down? I'm trying to sleep," groaned the doorknob, who had slept through the entire brawl.

"Are you _kidding_ me?!" Vayn yelled back at it, "We just fought a demon that would have probably killed you, and you tell us 'Keep it down'?!"

The doorknob yawned in reply, frustration Vayn further, while Sora smothered a laugh.

Suddenly , a blue light flickered inside the doorknob's 'mouth', forming a keyhole-shaped opening. "What is…?" Sora began to ask, when the Keyblade in his grasp suddenly came to life and lunged for the doorknob.

Energy started to concentrate at the tip of the Keyblade, and from it a blue beam shot forth, going into the keyhole. A clicking sound echoed from there as the doorknob's yawning ceased and it drifted back to sleep.

"Whoa," Vayn gaped, "Sora, what did you do?"

"I didn't do it," he said defensively, "It was the Keyblade! I swear!"

He was interrupted by a block that bounced into his foot from the direction of the door. "Huh? What's this?" Sora thought aloud as he picked it up to inspect it with wide blue eyes.

Donald swiped it from him. "It looks like a Gummi block," Donald said, though he sounded a bit unsure of himself. "Yep, a-hyuck, that's definitely a Gummi," Goofy added, "But it sure looks different from the ones we use."

The party's inspection of the foreign object was halted when an ovation rang out over them. It was none other than the Cheshire Cat.

"Excellent performance, boys," he complemented, although the boys he directed it at were glaring at him in fury, "Such a performance shows the talent that the both of you wield."

"How 'bout you stop B.S-ing and tell us whose side you're on," Vayn demanded, hand tensing on his Keyblade.

The cat's grin merely widened at the boy's words. "If you still wish to find Alice, then I should tell you this," the cat said, "She has left this world, whisked away by darkness, though I cannot say where."

The Cheshire Cat slowly faded away. "If you want to retrieve her, then continue to travel the worlds. Undoubtedly, you will find her on your adventure."

Vayn gritted his teeth once the cat had fully vanished. "Damn, we were too late," he cursed to himself."

Sora also appeared worried. "I wonder if she's still okay."

Donald removed the orange remote from his vest pocket. "Well, looks like it's about time we left," Donald said, pressing a small blue button on the remote. A circle of white appeared on the floor before them.

"This'll transport us back to the Gummi Ship," Goofy explained, motioning his hand over the circle.

Forgetting the previous problem, Vayn stared at the white circle skeptically. "Transport us…hey, wait a sec, couldn't you have just transported us down to the surface then?"

Donald rolled his eyes toward Sora. "We were going to, but _somebody_," he stressed this while glaring at Sora, "had to cause an accident!"

Sora stuck his tongue out at Donald as his way of retorting. "Well anyway," Donald regressed, "Let's get going."

The four stepped into the circle, Sora and Vayn doing so carefully, and were warped back up to the Gummi Ship, preparing for the next world and whatever it held in store.

* * *

"That cursed cat has a loose tongue." 

The small crowd, smaller now since some of its members were off on their own worlds, doing their own little chores, gathered around the hologram that projected two boys with Keyblades, a dog with a shield, a duck with a wand, and a cat that soon faded away. The speaker that had insulted the cat struck the end of his staff on the stone floor, making a resounding cluck in the dark room.

"We should have disposed of the creature beforehand when it had refused our generosity," he continued, the evil intent in his voice cold and solemn.

"That is of no concern," came a villainous reply from nearby, "Such trivialities need not to be concerned with."

A crow's caw resonated within the company and landed on the dim yellow orb that topped the rod of the replier. Even in the deep darkness, one could feel the frown that increased on the dark robbed figure as she stroked the black bird. "The most pressing matter at hand is the progress of the Keybearer's."

"Feh," scoffed one of the figures. By his silhouetted, one could see that he had long, pointed ears and one blazing mechanical eye, probably a replacement for the real one that had been lost in the midst of battle. "The children managed to find one of the Keyholes," he spoke, low and rough, "We need to hurry…"

Another figure chuckled obnoxiously. "Well, you're one to talk," it reproached, "Have'n fun 'rulin' your raggedy old city, my _good_ Baron?"

"Silence, you damned bug-bag," the 'Baron' roared, hand apparently reaching for the hilt of a sword.

"Be still, friends," the robbed woman said, almost warning, the crow fluttering away. "The Keyholes are concealed well enough that they shan't find the others with ease."

A wicked grin creased her lips, as a little flashed on upon a small blonde girl in a blue dress. "In the meantime, the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place."

* * *

**Gasp! **

**Well, that's it for this one. 10-points to anyone who guesses where 'the baron' comes from!**

**As you've seen, I get a lot of material from the KH Manga as well. I recommend you read it. It's great!**

**Preview time: Ch. 7**

"Don't take this personally," the blonde swordsman stated, brandishing his large blade from the sheathe on his back.

Feeling as if he should say something witty, Vayn came back with, "Tough talk blondey. What's with the sword? Compensating for something?"

A vain popped on the blonde's forehead. _This kid's first,_ he decided to himself/

"Begin!"

* * *

**Short and Sweet!**

**Please Rate and Comment**


End file.
